Shift Stabilizer Bar Pulled Out of Tranny

[Mikey]

The Bar That maintains the distance between tranny and the shifter assembly came out of the side of my tranny today. You guys probably know this makes it near impossible to get in gear. The bolt that goes through the bushing and spacer into the tranny pulled out and ripped all the threads out with it too. I had put energy sway bar bushings in and did not have the brackets slid all the way forward because the holes are elongated to allow adjustment and i went with putting them in the center. The sway bar had marks on it that corresponding with marks on the shift stabilizer bar so i figure thats what pulled it out. I moved the bushing brackets up all the way allowing maximum clearance between swaybar and stabilizer bar.

If anyone has ever dealt with a similar situation please let me know the remedy if one exists. I cant tap the hole either because the bolt barely fits through the bushing and sleeve now, let alone trying to put a bigger bolt through. Thought of trying Helicoil repair kit but i never used it before and didnt know if it would be strong enough for this application. I do have another tranny in the worst case scenario, but it has double the mileage.

My only and daily driver is down please help, thank you everyone.

 

[Mikey]

Hey don't every one respond at once now shrug I cant shift my car oh . Luckily, we just did repair work on a water main at a friend of mine who owns a machine shop in West Pittston, PA. I asked about welding the stripped out hole in the tranny case so i could retap it, and he said he's welded on all sorts of aluminum, no problem.

This man has years of welding expierence and he's coming up my garage tonight to take a look at what he can do. I'll post what he comes up with in case this happens to some one else.

 

[sho_sc]

I haven't seen this answer before, but has anyone tried a heli-coil to fix this problem?

 

[Mr Anonymous]

Depending on the extent of damage to the boss and meat remaining, you might be able to heli-coil it, but I don't know that I would have a great deal of long-term comfort with it.

I'd recommend finding a tranny shop with the ability to weld aluminum to repair and re-tap it. That way it can be done with the tranny in the car. Otherwise you'd be looking at dropping the tranny, and either finding another case half or finding a shop to repair it out of the car.

 

[v-tec killer]

Read his second post! Heli would work fine if done right. Good luck with the welding.. wink

 

[SHOguy 92]

oooooooooo..... This is a fun one I just had a similar thing happen when I got my 92 on the road. The shifter was moving around insanely bad I was able to shift all you have to do it when you press down the clutch and let off the gas stay off the gas for a second allowing the shifter to slide back then shift into 2nd or 4th, or you can just skip and go 1st, 3rd, 5th. You should be able to drive like that because those are the upfront gears and the shifter slides back thats what I did for 3 days! I had no spacers or bushing in mine some crappy bolth that was too small and some genious wired it up. I was driving with my window down when I heard a snap and I look in my rear view mirror and see a bolt head on the ground rolling away right then I knew something went bad then the wires broke and the support dropped down and jammed my shifter a few min later so I couldn't shift. Anyways Turns out the first 1/8th inch of threads were stripped in the hole to the tranny, I foudn this out after taking the whole rod shifter assembly from my 90. So I ground off a 1/4inch of the etal spacer to get the bolt to reach in farther and grab some htreads and it worked. So find out if you have threads farther inside you should, the factory bolt only goes in a little over an 1/8th of an inch so it shou;dn't have ripped out any more threads than the depth it goes in.:thumbs_u:

 

[SHOguy 92]

You can also try and find a 6 inch metric version of that bolt to get more threads into the hole and if its too long just use some washers as a spacer, but good luck trying to find a metric version of that bolt I am still trying to find one that is longer than the factory one with the same threads.

 

[gun metal slicer]

I actually had that happen to me last fall, had it towed home, got under it put the stabilizer bar back into place and wire-tied it there, its been great ever since. Cheap&easy, thats how I like it.

 

[Bank of SHO]

I used a Perma-coil thread repair kit on my stabilizer bolt. My bolt is 12mm x 1.75. The kit will tell you what size drill bit to use. In my case it was 31/64". Check how far the bolt depth in the hole is and mark that depth on your drill bit with masking tape so you know when to stop.

Be careful to drill it straight. Take your time. Blow the shavings out with compressed air. I used a small can of air meant for blowing dust out of a computer. It works fine if you don't have a compressor.

Tap the hole-tap included in kit. It wanted to go in at an angle when using a box-end wrench. Switched to a socket and controlled it well. Go in and out a little at a time and blow out debris as you go. Use cutting oil. Take your time and do it right. Read the directions.

Screw in the coil insert just below the surface. Use a drift to break off the install tang. Use air to blow out the tang if it remains in the hole. Follow the directions.

Make sure of your own bolt dimensions and what-not. Be sure we are talking about the same bolt.

Enjoy your renewed shifter. Good luck.

 

[Mikey]

I ended up tapping the hole with a 27/64 diameter tap, as described one post prior, and it has been shifting smooth since. I was able to get the car into 2nd with a fair amount of effort, but 4th was a real reach.

I should mention the reason the bar pulled out was because I had put the front swaybar in upside down. Don't bust me too bad, it was my first motor, transaxle, and subframe swap.