Front differential mount crossbar - one stripped bolt hole

[240260280z]

John always knows:

Cool Product

[John Coffey]

A magnetic level makes it much easier to drill things straight.

[Kennymonster]

A magnetic level makes it much easier to drill things straight.

Thanks John, ordered a kit from Torrance last night, should get here tomorrow. I watched their youtube vids and it does look pretty straight forward.

[johnbell47]

I did the exact same thing on one of those bolts. I walked over to the tool box got a 1/2 fine thread tap and an appropriate drill bit and retapped the hole. I have found that the metal in my 74 varies from soft to extremely hard. bolts all seem to be very soft, but I cut a hole in the hood for some aero catch latches, DANG! That metal was tough!

[Kennymonster]

I did the exact same thing on one of those bolts. I walked over to the tool box got a 1/2 fine thread tap and an appropriate drill bit and retapped the hole. I have found that the metal in my 74 varies from soft to extremely hard. bolts all seem to be very soft, but I cut a hole in the hood for some aero catch latches, DANG! That metal was tough!

Yeah I had to use a drive extension on the tap wrench for leverage, but got it done.

Update: The timesert kit worked perfectly! thanks again to John C. for the suggestion.

I put some red loctite on the outer part of the insert (probably not necessary) to make it ultra permanent. Only problem I encountered was the threaded hole itself being somewhat short, the insert did not seat fully to the counter sunken hole. So I just drilled out a ~1/8" on the diff mount bar, using the same timesert countersink tool, allowing the mount to seat flush to the body. Torqued to spec nicely.