Somewhere on one of the dealer rebuilts under warrenty of my front alxe seals, they stripped the same bolt and installed a heli coil. I never realized it until I took it apart now and cleaned things up. I must have removed the caliper six or seven times since then and never had a problem, so they seem to work fine.
USE A HELICOIL!!!! It will be fine if properly installed. By that I mean drilled with the proper size drill, tapped to there size, clean thoroughly with 90% isopropyl alchohol, both the hole and new coil, and then RED LOCKTIGHT the coil in place. Follow those step and you will be fine.
I design and build industrial machines, and it's common practice to use thread inserts in new machines that will be repeatedly dissasembled, or in soft materials. The thread inserts themselves are very high quality metal, and the larger threads into the knuckle will be stronger than the smaller threads of the original hole. There are several types of thread inserts, type "thread insert" at http://www.mcmaster.com for some examples. Worst case, I suppose, would be the thread insert coming out with the fastener, not a catastrophic failure. If it's installed correctly it won't come out. The basic helicoil is a very simple procedure if you can get a drill in there.
No Dan, dont give up!!! My vote is still OEM, NIB. Like I wrote, I've had helicoils come out! I think that by using them in all these above awesome applications, these people are saving money where they wont worry about life and death failure. Hell, I think Bill should go shove that thing up those bozos asses, if for no other safety reason, for the fact that this was not disclosed on a rebuild or reman statement. Most rebuild and reman work is supposed to state what is new and/or newly reconditioned, what is a replacement piece and what is a reused piece. The way I look at things like this is "Well it might work, it might not, I can afford it if it works, I certainly cannot afford it (consequences) if it dont!" Then again, I'm a self-diagnosed obsessive compulsive paranoid hypochondriac so take that for what its worth.
I'll talk to my local mechanic tomorrow and see if any machine shops are open. If they are of like minds I just might go the helicoil route.
You guys need to remember that I live in BFN, and any kind of specialty item is hard to come by. I do have a fastener shop just up the road that servies most of the businesses in town, I'll have to go check with them, but generally they require sizeable orders.
Maybe I can get my mechanic to sell me a couple of 'em.
I still need the proper bolts though. Possibly bought at the same place. I'll take my beggars cup out to the corner tomorrow....
Part of me is still wanting to go used/new on this part... but I'm not bleeding cash right now and buying a knuckle, even at "Discount Dan's Parts Emporium" is going to be dicey.
I think I'll work on the Fj60 tomorrow, maybe I can screw something up on it.
You know, I bought the 80 as a DD, and the 60 as a beater- and the 60 has started up and driven me to work every single day since I brought it home (except for that nasty fuel pump incident). The 80 has sat more days on jack stands than it has on it's own tires.
I had the EXACT same issue and challenge last month.
I got a used knuckle housing with studs for $75 from cruiserparts.net.
I also got a new spindle since mine was buggered.
Sorry to see you had the same issue as me...my problem was the person in there before me used the top knuckle cap bolts in the caliper, and vice versa.
They each have different thread pitch...arrrrg!
Got all my goodies back together and on the road...just went wheeling on a night run as a matter of fact, all held up well.
Truly sorry to hear about the problem. However, as you said - better to find this out in the driveway than after a long day of driving on a knuckle rattling dirt road.
Having said that, it's just been revealed to you why many of us do things ourselves. What do you think a shop would have done if you were paying them 1200 beans and they had this happen? Probably get a slightly bigger bolt with different threads and jam it in there with an air wrench.
You're getting an opportunity to see the things that a poorly done job can do, and why I for one will never pay anyone to do something I can do myself. So keep going on the DIY route!!
If it helps you, NAPA carries heli coils or their variant. NAPA's seem to be everywhere including BFN. They can usually get them in the same or next day. Also, I have gotten them from Fastenal, but sometimes that is a little wait.
Dan - I had the seals done once in PA, and also above Seattle WA so don't know who's ass to shove it up. Good point turbo made in that it was never disclosed to me. Everytime I switched to synthetic in the front the axle seals would leak.
Bill, I have a knuckle that I can send you. Just tell me if it is DS or PS. I need your old one back. I will send it with the flange on Monday (no UPS pickup today).
I am building a display 80 series frame with axles and suspension, so I still need a knuckle but since it will not have brakes the hole does not matter to me.
I have a Helicoil holding on my DS caliper. Had it off only once since, but everything looked perfect. It's never loosened up and I torqued it to the full spec. It's probably stronger than the original threaded hole.
Bill, you could throw a helicoil in there in 15 minutes for about $30 and replace the knuckle later at your leisure.
Came home from working a couple of hours this afternoon. All the rain we've been having softened up the ground enough for the jack stands to collapse into the ground.
The cruiser was sitting on the discs.
WOOHOO!
Bent up the dust shields pretty good, but that looks like the extent of the damage.
