During replacing the driver side axle on my daily driving ITR, my friend told me that it was missing a bolt on the bearing support for the intermediate shaft. I just got the bolt today and try to put it in, it kept spinning while i was trying to tight it. I asked my friend that it seems like the thread on the block is stripped. My friend told me that I can leave it as it since there are still 2 bolts holding the intermediate shaft support bearing or I can try lock-tight to tighten the bolt. Well, the problem is...

1: if only 2 bolts holding the bearing support, I can feel there is little bit vibration from the drive shaft because there is still barely little play on the bearing support.

2: if I use lock-tight to tighten the bolt, it is good for now if it can hold it, but we have no idea if it is not strong enough to hold it. Even it is strong enough to hold it, if I need to take it out one day, it may be a big headache to take the bolt out...

From your experience, what should I do with it now? or is there any other solution to fix it?

thx

 

get a tap and die kit and re-thread the hole. if the hole is already too stretched out, you need to buy a heli-coil kit for the size bolt your using. it will make the hole in the block larger but then you install new threads

 

Heli coil or leave it alone.

 

I concur with both guys ^^^^

 

Helicoil is the best and safest way to rectify your problem. Trouble is you'll need to drill the hole to clean it out, then tap it and finally insert the new threads. Obviously it is a very tight fit in that area so you'll need to figure that out.

Thinking about this a little more, depending on how messed up the threads are, you may be able to clean them up with the tap. Try that first and if it doesn't work, you'll need to do everything else I mentioned.

 

thx for the suggest
Helicoil is a good idea but I don't know if there is enough room to work on the it if the engine is still in the car
well, my friend will take a look and see if we can do anything with it without taking the engine out