Do not mistake the longer sway bar bolt that goes on the control arm for the short bracket bolt that goes on the chassis. My lack of sleep and determination to get the car running again lead to the dumbest crap I have pulled yet:

The rear sway bar bracket bolt is about 1.5" long threaded all the way to the head of the bolt. The sway bar bolt that goes on the control arm is threaded 1/2 way up and is about 2.5" long.

My dumbass put the 2.5" bolt into the bracket location which is on the chassis itself. When tightening it "for some reason " it stopped half way. WTF! The bolt was fully threaded in the hole when I removed it!!! I don't know what I was thinking, but I brought out my 2 foot 1/2 breaker bar and manhandled that bolt into the hole determined to get it back in. After 5 minutes of manhandling with my mandingo breaker bar, the threads finally gave in. WTF!!!

So.... I remove the bolt and see it's threaded half way, and then see the short bolt thats fully threaded on the ground staring at me. I plowed the internal threads in the chassis with the unthreaded portion of the long sway bar bolt. Bigger bolt and tapping time is in store for me now.

I have no idea what I was thinking.

Don't let this happen to you.

 

At least you didnt break the bolt off flush to the chassis. I did that to one of my front sway bar bolts and now im screwed. Go-fish.

 

'Patience is a virtue' we have all winter guys, take your time to avoid mistakes like such

thanks for letting us know though. (wait two to three months, and i'll have a thread of something stupid i've done as well getting ready for DGRR)

 

make sure the sway bar link to control arm bolt points outward, so that the head is closest to the chassis. otherwise you run the risk of the bolt hitting the chassis and snapping off your sway bar link.

 

Try using a heli-coil. you will be able to re-use the original size bolt.