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Reply to "Rear Sway Bar Braket Nuts Stripped?"

I was over at the fabricators shop last night visiting 4382...my rear sway bar studs are being replaced. Here's the fabricators idea to replace them. The original studs are just bolts with a very small round head spot welded onto what amounts to basically a six sided box welded onto the back of the Pantera frame, one on the left and right side.

My fabricator cut the bottom of the box off (see diagram)...so now you have access to the entire back side of the stud/bolt. His fix is to take a 3/8" slab of steel that fits the inside dimensions of the box, knock the old studs out, so now you have a clean box with no rounded bolt heads spot welded to the inside. Cut a piece of steel to fit the inside of the box (approx 2" x 3.5" x 3/8") which now can be drilled and threaded with two new stud holes, slide the steel up inside the box, thread the new studs into the new steel, put a nut on the new studs form the outside to tighten and pull the steel inside the box up to the surface, do a couple rosette welds to hold the steel in place and you're done. You could also epoxy the piece of steel in if you don't have a welder.

Basically all you've created is a backing plate that fits up inside from the bottom to anchor new studs. You could also just re-thread the old head that is remaining, and thread a nut onto a new stud like Larry did but with the bottom cut open, you can now easily insert the nut from the opening in the bottom. I like the piece of steel inserted in behind because it distributes the load over a larger area once all the sway bar brackets are bolted on.

Hope you can read my diagram...I thought it might be easier to understand.

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Last edited by tomsealbeach
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