Here is my scenario. I rebuilt my trailing arms about two months ago, but I ran into a little problem during the rebuild. I was chasing the threads into the caliper mounting bracket with the wrong tap...I accidentally used a coarse thread instead of a fine thread. So what I did to fix the hole was drill and tap the hole to accept a larger size 1/2'' bolt instead of the original 7/16'' bolt. It worked perfectly, so I continued with the rebuild and finished off the trailing arms. The only difference now is I have to oversize the hole in the caliper to accept a 1/2'' bolt, which isn't really a big problem. I discovered that I should have just used a helicoil to repair the threads when I tapped the hole for a larger bolt...that would have saved me from having to enlarge the hole in the caliper.

I now have a 1/2'' - 20 hole. I can oversize the hole in the caliper and use it the way it is, and it will work no problem...but if there is an alternate method, I'd like to go that route. I believe that helicoils use a special tap, so that is no longer an option. I have already tapped the hole using a regular 1/2-20 tap. Is there a thread insert that is designed to fit into a regularly tapped 1/2"-20 hole that will accept a 7/16"-20 bolt? Of course, I would need to use red loctite on the outside of the thread insert when I install it because it is being threaded into "regular tapped thread", not like the helicoils that use a special tap. Any thoughts?

Here is the hole that I tapped a while back.



Here are my completed arms.

 

You can use one of these. You will have to drill and tap the hole to 5/8"-11. Insert lenght is 9/16". Click on thread inserts and go to self locking inserts. Sorry can't get a link to work that will take you to the page. http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg...read%20inserts

 

Try this site

http://www.timesert.com/

 

bump

 

Where can I find full inserts locally?