So I made the error of trying to re-tighten my bumper bracket bolt (the ones that go through the brackets to the frame rail) by myself yesterday and re-align the bracket after fighting with the stone guard install…only to start feeling the bolt turning and turning in the mounting nut on one of them. Dang it! Of course getting another bolt is not too difficult, but I’m not sure about saving the other end of the operation.
What is the best procedure from here? A helicoil? I’ve seen “thread repair kits” too from Craftsman? Years ago I know we did something different on Gunner but I cannot remember. But I do remember these threads on that mount nut being pretty precarious.
Brian, sound’s like the nut has come un-welded from the frame and not stripped out, there are plugs on the inside of the frame you can remove to get to the nuts and maybe hold with needle nose vise grips or re weld
Twice I have pounded a nut into the hole just about flush with the frame surface then stick welded the nut to the frame surface, a little grinding and its flush.
First, thanks for the feedback, guys. The nut was still in there and solid (there’s no rust going on at all); I had just gone in at a bad angle with the bolt trying to hurry it with both brackets on there…lesson learned.
A friend came over last night after I’d bought the correct Tap, which is a 7/16" 14 count on this nut. He and I drilled out the space a bit on the bracket to assure a nice clean passage to the nut and then used a small socket to hold said tap and right in it went…Presto. He had done this before and used a lot of leverage and just very slowly turned that tap till it bit.
It definitely helps to have a helper pushing up and in on the bumper whilst another wrenches her down on all 4 bolts, too…coming right along!