Subframe - Taping out the holes

Lets just say, the top two can be done to the 8mm 1.25 thread pitch as it has been stated before. It was easy to do. Sears sells a 8mm 1.25 pitch tap with the drill bit for like $8...so no need to buy a whole tap & die set.

However the other holes have brass gourmets that when you try and tap they spin. I could not hold them even with Vice-Grips, okay I did on one and it broke the Gourmet off inside with the tap stuck into that part. I had to cut the tap off with a dremel and push it to the side inside the frame. Only method I could think of to fix my error was to drill a hole through the frame and use some T collar fittings that I pushed in from the back side and a long 8mm bolt that I put a lock-nut on the end so it does not vibrate off. I did the same for the other 2 holes. I guess we will see if this works and there is no frame problems. Worst case I will need to take the subframe off and have the bro give it to his guy to weld some solid aluminum in there that I can tap out.

So be warned only the upper two bolt holes can be tapped out to a larger size as they have aluminum inserts in them. This is easy to do, took me 10 minutes to do both holes. For bolts I used Hex bolts that are class 12.9 bought from my local ACE Hardware. They should not break at all.

Old and NEW bolts:


Tapping the Hole:


Bolt in hole:

What is the objective of changing bolts? Stripped bolt/threads?

So the bolts are easily sheered or bend.

Bump wrote:So the bolts are easily sheered or bend.

They tended to sheer for me, however they seem fine with the bigger ones in now that are rated at 12.9 class.