broke the sway bar nut inside the frame

I was disconnecting the sway bar bracket in my 2007 Tacoma and the nut that is welded inside the frame broke loose. What can I do now? (the bolt is turning free because the welded nut is now loose)

 

grinder --> cutting wheel --> No problem!

 

sway bar? whats that

 

Same thing happened to me a couple years ago. I cut the bolt with a whizzer wheel, then I pulled the front bumper cover and then pulled the bumper off as well. With the bumper off I was able to reach into the frame with a breaker bar and place nut over the hole and simply nut and bolt the swaybar back into place. Kind of a pain, and it will be if I ever need to remove the sway bar again, but it was the only thing I could think of at the time. Since then I saw sway bar relocate kits. I figure if I had nut and bolted one of those in I would be able to remove the swaybar in the future without removing the front bumper. If I ever need to remove it again I will add a relocate kit.

 

Chris, No access to the frame there. It is fully boxed in that section. Only way would be to cut an acces hole and then patch it up. There's no way I'm having my frame cut into. I thought about using a rivnut, but ultimately decided I did not trust the strength of it

 

Good luck getting a welder that far down the frame through the front bumper mount, let alone being able to make an accurate weld with no visual....

 

Why are we even talking about putting the swaybar back on? No no no no no no no.

 

Boo hoo. Roll it back over and keep driving.

 

I've seen welds made from 4-5 sticks distance away (Yeah...4 sticks tacked together and then used to weld). Pretty...Not at all...Strong-as fuck.

 

don't forget to call an amberlamps for the mother and child you took out while rolling over

 

They should've run faster.

 

10 points each

 

I approve this thread!

 

I know this thread is getting old but here's a few options. You can purchase threaded inserts and install the threated inserts with the special tool.

The other option is to weld a piece of metal (tab) the same width as the nut but approximately 3 inches in length...it has to be longer than the width of the channel...you will understand shortly...

Once the nut is welded onto the tab, tack weld a wire to the tab. Now you can put (fish) the entire nut/tab through the hole on the side of the frame and guide it to where the original nut was.

The reason for the tab to be long is when you start to tighten the nut/bolt, the tab will hit against the frame and you will be able to tighten it up. Once completed, break the wire off the tab.

Hope this helps, as it worked for me. Good luck

 

Really good idea sweet. I need to do this fix............

 

blacktaco07 I know this is super old but.. I had this problem and after a quick google search it brought me to this thread, and your idea worked great! Thanks! I actually wound up using a zip tie to get it aligned, I fished it down to the mounting point/hole, slid the zip through the nut and let it go, slid into place perfectly.