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drilling out steering box bolt holes?

1K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  chevotass 
#1 ·
wondering if anyone sees anything wrong with drilling out the holes on a steering box.

its a chevy 2wd box that has threaded 7/16 holes. i want to sleeve my frame where it bolts with 3/4od x 1/2" id tubing. so i was thinking of drilling out the threads to 1/2" holes and thru bolting it.

anybody see this as a bad idea?
 
#2 ·
How big are the bolts that thread into it? I thought they were not that far off from being 1/2 inch to begin with. I honestly see no problem in doing this as long as there is still a decent amount of metal left around the mounting holes. It is something that is difficult to give a straight yes or no without physically looking at it.
 
#5 ·
Nick,
I had to drill out one because I stripped it. The downside is that one of the ears is radiused on the back side where the casting flows into the main body of the steering box. So, a standard nut will not fit behind it. I ended up grinding a big radius on a nut and modified the casting a bit to make it fit. It was a PITA. I considered a heli coil but didn't want to pull the whole steering box. If there is nothing wrong with the threads, I like the idea of the schedule 160 pipe. It has a thick enough wall that if you decided to drill it out later you still can.
 
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