I started to replace my friends rack and pinion on his 92 Accord EX. The first thing I did was remove the tin shield from under the main mounting bolts and one of the mounting bolts was in that tin and the other mounting bolt was loose but in place. The bolt that fell all the way out fits all the way into the hole and has nothing to thread into. The other mounting bolt was about an 1/8" loose and tightening or loosening it did nothing. I had to use a pry bar to put pressure on the bolt and I was able to tighten the bolt.

It seems that there should be bolts welded in place on the inside of the subframe but they both have broken off. Once I loosed the remaining bolt all the way out I don't think it will have anything to hold it in place. There's no access to the inside of the subframe so I'll have to either replace the subframe or maybe drill some holes so I can put nuts on the back side.

Has anyone encountered this problem? What advice can you give me? I already tried buying new bolts because the original bolt was all stripped out. I was hoping a new bolt with new threads was going to fix this. It didn't.

Thanks in advance.