Sway bar bushing helicoil?

Noticed my sway bar brackets looked lose. Went to tighten things up and both my passenger side bolts wouldn't tighten. Pulled the sway bar (i've been meaning to try it without) and the helicoils from bolt bolts have been knocked free. What has everyone else done to rectify that? My first thought was to drill a hole on the top side and then just run a longer bolt through with washers and a nut. Suggestions?

 

^Those are welded nuts inside the frame that broke. Yeah hole drilled through to the other side would be the best solution. Use some thick fender washers (or a rectangular plate) to avoid crushing the frame tube.

 

Drill and drop for sure.

You can use a coat hanger to feed it in from another port.

 

thanks all!

 

Definitely give it a good test drive before you go through all that trouble. So much nicer with it gone and I've had plenty of opportunities to test it in the last 90k. Hahaha!

 

Had to drill holes anyway since those nuts broke loose. Grade 8 hardware. Wasn't as bad as expected. Real easy to drill from above when you have the right extensions, ha.



Sway bar has been removed. So far so good. But my truck has all my camping gear on it, so she's a little heavier than usual, ha.