Rear trailing arm broken bolts, How in trouble am I?? Options

[PaIsa]

Long story short, 2 of the 3 bolts holding the left rear trailing arm broke on me. One broke and left some of the bolt out of the hole so I thought I could get it with heat and vise grip but nope. She is stuck. The other one broke and what is left is in the hole.

I cannot believe I am the first 914 owner dealing with this.

As I said, for the bolt that left me something to work with my plan was to heat it and use vise grip to try to get it. Tried on multiple occasion but she does not want to come out.

For the other one I guess I only have left to dril it out and try to redo the threads hoping for the best.

Does anyone has any other advice or method to try.

I do not have a welding machine so welding a nut is not an option for now and not sure it would work (for the one that sticks out of the hole).

I am open for any advice. I plan to work on this with my son this weekend.

Thanks

[914werke]

One thing that I am unsure of is the fact that these 2 ''bobins'' are open from bottom to top.

Depends on the MY of the car. Early cars DID in fact use caps, later cars the holes at top were either welded or brazed closed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

[PaIsa]

One thing that I am unsure of is the fact that these 2 ''bobins'' are open from bottom to top.

Depends on the MY of the car. Early cars DID in fact use caps, later cars the holes at top were either welded or brazed closed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

Mine seem to be capped like 1/2 to 3/4'' from the top. As I said, not a big problem as if needed, I could drill through.

In the case the thread get trashed, does going to a larger bolt could be an option. The sleeve (bobbin) seems beefy enough to accept a larger bolt. I guess it would mean increasing the size of hte holes on the trailing arm console. Does anyone see any problem to this last resort option, before having to replace the sleeves. One other option I see would be to have long bolts going thought the sleeve and putting a nut on top of the sleeve.

[ChrisFoley]

One thing that I am unsure of is the fact that these 2 ''bobins'' are open from bottom to top.

Depends on the MY of the car. Early cars DID in fact use caps, later cars the holes at top were either welded or brazed closed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

Mine seem to be capped like 1/2 to 3/4'' from the top. As I said, not a big problem as if needed, I could drill through.

In the case the thread get trashed, does going to a larger bolt could be an option. The sleeve (bobbin) seems beefy enough to accept a larger bolt. I guess it would mean increasing the size of hte holes on the trailing arm console. Does anyone see any problem to this last resort option, before having to replace the sleeves. One other option I see would be to have long bolts going thought the sleeve and putting a nut on top of the sleeve.

I've seen plenty of cars repaired by drilling out the threads and using longer thru bolts. I don't like it but it is a whole lot easier than replacing the sleeve. A potential problem with using larger diameter bolts is that they may limit the toe adjustment range.;