supaman

So the dreaded seized bolts when doing the rear suspension has really caused me some headaches this time. The bolt that connects the lca to the trailing arm was seized, and in trying to get it out I stripped the threads on the trailing arm. Anybody just cut off the threaded part and used a nut? I really need the car back on the road, but am wondering if that will be a good enough solution.

tony_2018

Why not re-tap it?

supaman

Excuse my ignorance on re-tapping, as I have never done it before, but I assumed that if I stripped it out, I would not be able to retap in the same size. Is this not correct? If so, I'll just need to find me an m10 x 1.25 tap. Thanks for the response.

TomCat39

How did you strip the threads in the welded nut part of the trailing arm while taking out the seized bolt?

It is really difficult to visualize how the female threads of the nut got stripped when most action would be done on the male threads of the bolt (vice grips etc).

I don't consider drilling out the threads as stripped as much as drilled out, in which case a tap will not work.

98civdx

if you got the bolt out, and only messed up the threads you can re-tap it, or just snap it off and replace it with a lock nut.

I just broke mine yesterday on accident.

TomCat39

I wouldn't say that is always the case.

On 3 of mine (2 on driver's side 1 on passenger's) I drilled out between 1/4 to 1/3 of the threads. Retapping doesn't really work but it did get the remainder sliver of bolt out all 3 holes. Then I could only find regular steal nuts in the 12x1.25mm thread pitch nuts to use as lock nuts. The partial threads grabbed the bolts okay but I didn't trust it to hold with driving forces so I then put the nuts on the ends of all the bolts and cinched them down to the welded nuts/female thread posts of the arm and struts. Been good for a few years now and it's taken speed bumps, 190 KPH a time or two and general hard cornering from time to time.

I believe the strut and LCA bolts are 12x1.25mm. Standard fine is 12x1.5mm if I recall or is it 12x1.0.... Don't remember but the 1.25 thread pitch is a Honda special.

supaman

On how I did it, I was trying to get the bolt to break free from the bushing as both were spinning while I had the impact on it, the bolt was still touching the threads of the welded nut. I didn't realize it until it was too late. It may be that I just messed up the first part of the threads so if I can find a tap then I can attempt to re-thread. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a tap locally. I also see you are stating 12x1.25, I thought these were 10x1.25?

TomCat39

My memory is fuzzy. They probably are 10x1.25. The part that I remember is they are 1.25 thread pitch which is not a normal metric pitch. Normal pitch in 1.5 or very fine 1.0. The 1.25 is a honda special and it's not as easy to find like bolts or nuts.

I bought a large tap and die set when it was on sale locally. Fortunately it has these special pitch sizes to it or I would be like you and struggling.

Being you only messed up the beginning of the threads, you can easily retap. I would actually go from behind so that you are already meshed with the good threads when you hit the bad threads.

supaman

Thanks for the help. My local autoparts store said they would be able to have one for me this afternoon so hopefully it will work.