Well, I screwed up! (help needed Kartboy rear shifter bushing hole stripped)

[Jolbaru_LGT]

So, I messed up installing a Kartboy shifter bushing. I stripped the hole going into the firewall. Now, I'm stuck as to what to do, and the whole project I was working on is at a standstill.

 

The provided bolts just didn't seem exact and instead of threading them on without the bushing, which I should have done, I put the bushing on, and tried getting them both in. It seems it's such a tight fit that the angles didn't line up, and I probably should have known better.

 

Now, Im not sure what to do, my dad wants to cut a hole from underneath into the firewall and get a nut in there with a lock washer and tighten it down. I'm not sure. We tried to tap it and it just didn't seem to work. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm not sure if anyone else ran into this problem, but I'm at a loss for what the right thing to do next is. Thanks in advance.

[All_talk]

No easy fix here, but don't sweat it, we have all done stuff like this, Just take a breath and make a plan.

 

The weld nut behind there is probably pretty thin wall and I doubt there is room to tap it out to a larger size, And even if you could, you would have to modify the bushing/shift mount to fit the now larger bolt.

 

"The right way" involves cutting and welding in a new nut (this would be my choice). If that's not available to you, your dads "nut from behind" idea is not a bad one.

 

If I were going to do it this way I would enlarge/elongate the existing drain hole to the left in your picture, You wont need to remove a lot of material, just enough to reach up behind the weld nut with a box end wrench and hold the nut in position. I would drill the weld nut out to clear the bolt, you don't want to be fighting the old threads. Skip the lock washer and use a automotive type flanged lock nut (see pic), this style nut will be easy to hold in the wrench and not push through when you try and start the bolt. A regular nut/lock washer would require a much larger hole so you can get in there with your fingers or pliers or such. You can also use some masking take, glue or thick grease to hold the nut in the wrench.

 

Good luck,

 

Gary

[Jolbaru_LGT]

We got it! Tapped it to a SAE bolt, with a coarser thread. Actually used a sillcock key to get the tap started and finished. Lucky there was enough room to get in there, but I really appreciate the advice, All-talk, it's good to have a few back up plans when you screw something like this up. Edited August 20, 2021 by Jolbaru_LGT