I debated on sharing this. In the interest of full disclosure I decided its part of the build up and should have its place here. There's no real shame other than its the lazy way out and the fix isn't up to my usual standard. There is no compromise to safety.
On the street, I run a 1.25" ADDCO front sway bar.
In my tenure as custodian of this vehicle, nothing has made this car feel more like a modern car than this piece. The dodging, dipping, diving, ducking and dodging (cmon, you gotta know that movie!) into turns was all solved with this bar. Its heavy, (21.76lbs heavy) but it completely transforms the front end behavior on the street. I love it. Not like swimming in raw sewage love it, but I love it nonetheless. (Anyone?)
For the track, I take it off the car completely. I mention this to let you know there is a lot of opportunity for the small 3/8 bolts to strip out, especially if one uses the tightening of those small 3/8 bolts to help draw up the bar when putting it back on the car. (did I mention it was heavy?) Do that enough times with the 2 threads of engagement the factory frame gives you and you get the idea. One of the 4 holes was stripped and I gotta fix it.
To aid in stripping of the threads, please note the following:
The small 3/8 bolts present an issue. Without washers, they could potentially slip through the large hole in the bracket holding the bar to the car. Easy enough to fix right? Pop a washer in there and you're good to go. Not really....
Probably more easily solved with a smaller O.D. SAE washer, when you don't have them, you make do. As such, in order for bolts to line up properly with their respective threads, you gotta make sure the washers chosen don't interfere with the bracket. Grind in a flat side if you gotta, but make sure you grind enough, or else this happens:
Don't grind too much though, or else youll discover how quickly those washers twist out on tighten when the bolt hole has been breached.
The other problem is that because this bar is bigger than the biggest factory bar, perfect bolt alignment is difficult to get on a good day. The bar, the bushing and the bracket take up so much space, one bolt on each side is usually pointing at some sort of angle to engage. (The pic above is a combination of both problems rearing their head)
"Bar"ring any more excuses of why its stripped, lets get on with the fix.
I swear, when I measured the threads on the bolt I took out, it was 7/16 with a 16 pitch. Now, where is that tap.... this kit? This kit? This kit? Oh wait....that's not a normal tap, is it? Nope. 7/16-14 is normal coarse threading and 7/16-20 is normal fine threading, but no 16. Hmm.. looks like I gotta special order a tap. %^$
I found one, and only one, online on a site called DrillsandCutters.com. I didn't buy it right away because I never heard of the place, and ya know, my identity is kinda important to me. I figured a local search would definitely turn one up anyway, but I was less than right on that call. (some might say wrong). Even the best hardware stores around (Think Truevalue, ACE etc) didn't carry them. Then the pandemic hit.
Fine - lets take a chance on the unheard of site. (great experience btw!)
When I got the tap, it didn't fit in the way I expected. As a matter of fact, I couldn't even get it started. WTF?
I gotta mechanic buddy - one of his favorite sayings is brute force and ignorance always overcomes fear and common sense. I told him about the issues Ive been having with the fitment so he decided to help out. He takes the tap, goes under the car and sure enough, got it to fit.
Son of a .... . Am I that far out mechanic shape I cant start a friggin tap?? I must be losing my mind faster than I thought. Then it hit me. (Taking the 3/8 bolt and seeing it get lost in the 7/16 hole helped too). I bought the wrong tap.
Well, #$^. I really am losing my mind.
Yup, 3/8 bolt. 7/16 tap. Rookie mistake. Lets not dwell on it.
On the bright maybe now a regular 7/16-14 tap will work? Yeah, right.
Ugh, filling, welding, grinding, drilling, taping and painting isn't really something I want to do at this juncture! I'm this far away from driving this thing!!! [ ] I cant spend time messing with this crap! But I really want that bar in there.
Go big or stay home, right? Enter, stage right, the 1/2" bolt. (socket cap technically)
And with the proper tap this time, I present you the ugly fix with terrible lighting -
The bracket you can see, hangs off the frame a tad here. I'll correct that because I will likely catch something (skin, clothes, gloves) on that about 1,652 times until I remember its there.
Will anyone ever see this ugly ass oversized bolt? No.
Will I know its there? Yes.
Will it bother me until they are all the same size? Yes.
Will I be taking the time to change them all out anytime soon? Very unlikely.