Sway bar bolts are stripped

[RoyBell]

During our down time I had one of my apprentices working on my car. He was trying to get the sway bar off and managed to strip out both bolts on one side holding the bar to the frame.

From what I can gather, there must be a nut inside the frame (inaccessible) that broke free. The bolts just spin freely. If I cut the bolts off, how would I go about refastening them? Since it's a little loose it's just clunking around while I drive. I tried wedging material in there temporarily but it's not holding enough.

 

[earthrealm]

yeah, got into a similar situation last week,
am looking at either the rivnut noption, or cutting a window in the frame, and drop a nut there.
for now i have decided to remove the sway bar, while i decide next course of action

1. Sway bar bushing install - Broken frame thread insert

2. Sway bar issue

 

[Derekv]

I recently bought a river-nut kit to fix a stripped out skid plate threading on my 4Runner. Worked very well. Used it again yesterday to drop in some river nuts into the firewall for a oil separator/catch can installation. Really happy with the kit. Only issue is it didn’t come with a chart for what size drill bit for each but size.

Derek V

 

[V8Man]

[MENTION=67260]RoyBell[/MENTION]
Yep here is a look inside at the front sway bar area. I made this repair on both T4R number 3 & 4. This is #4. The cut was made centered on the hole on either side of the sway bar mount. The donor pieces came from #1.

 

[Whamola]

In case anyone comes up on this problem like I did this week, I went the carriage bolt method.

The nuts on the back side both broke free.

1: Remove front bolts all the way.
2: Jack up and Take front wheels off
3: Sawzall off the loose bolts
4: Fish 3/8-16-2" carriage bolt in through the hole in the frame
5: Change bushings, and reinstall the old bolts that didn't break
6: Apply loctite to new bolts
7: Crush washer & nut.
8: Torque down.

If this car wasn't something I only wanted 3 more years out of, I might go the cut, weld a nut, weld a patch method.

I'm going to be keeping a close eye on this and will report back if anything goes awry.