This is on my '91 GTA, a car I bought used a couple of years back. I don't know what was done to it previously, but every suspension bolt was excessively tight when I replaced the swaybar bushings and wonderbar, but everything worked out ok. Today, I tried to un-bolt the transmission cross-member bolts, shearing off one bolt head, and while unbolting found that two of the bolts are stripped. I'm only able to remove one bolt out of 4, not to mention that the tranny mount attachment to the cross-member also sheared off (and no, I wasn't loosening the bolts in the wrong direction)! Also, I wasn't using my impact wrench, but instead by hand. Questions: how the hell do I get the sheared/stripped bolts out. Also, how can I create some new larger threads where I've stripped the old bolts?

P.S. I also own a '91 T/A that I bought new, I've replaced almost every part of the suspension including the torque arm and tranny member/mount, and never found any stripped or sheared off any bolts. This was a simple job that's turned into a nightmare.

Thanks, Dave '91 T/A, '91 GTA, '01 T/A

 

weld a nut on the broken bolt, if it breaks weld another one one. another option is using the tap drill and drilling and retapping. use a left hand drill and there's a chance the stub will spin out on the drill bit. other option would be to drill and tap on size larger, consider american and metric sizes and you shouldn't have to open the hole up much more than factory.