Brakes and what PO did!
 

So here I am with brand new rotors, pads, and brake fluid, ready to spend an hour or two on my new ( to me ) 2000S! Well, this is what I've had to deal with. 2 different caliper bolts in drivers side rear, they are M12's but with 1.25 pitch. Still was able to torque them down to 63'lbs. my next find occured when I sheared the head off of the top caliper bolt on the passenger side front. Not too big of an issue, just time consuming. Copious amounts of pb blaster and two nuts driven onto the shaft later, was able to to remove the bolt, threads covered in.... Wait for it.... JB Weld!!! Ran a tap down and no joy. Mostly JB Weld and specks of metal came out. All the JB Weld was removed and with what metal was left for a M12, was able to get some grab, but not enough. By running the torque wrench in 10'lb increments was able to get to 40, but I knew would shear out the threads if I continued. So looking at going up the next size, but don't think M14 will fit through caliper to the hub, I can attempt weld/drill/tap, or heli-coil. Anyone had to deal with this? And know a good deal on heli-coil kits out there?

Wow. I commend you on your mechanical skills, to be able to figure out what the problem was is awsome.The PO and/or his mechanic is an idiot, really goobered/jerry rigged one of the most critical systems of a car, the brakes. I don't know, but you have to get some solid threads in the hub. Don't know how to do it, but it sounds like you have the smarts to figure it out

Don't use a heliocoil, timeserts are the far superior product, that said a heliocoil would beat JB weld. The hub is stripped as San said? You should be able to correct that with a timesert, after all the corn cob job they did was holding.

My skills are enough to get me into enough trouble to buy another tool or part. Thanks for the praise though. Now for the helicoil/timesert, I figured the same thing. If JB weld held it, then a helicoil will do just fine. They are definitely readily accessible, but timeserts would be next, then the reweld. But as things usually go, I'll be picking up a carrier assembly as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Especially if its for the right price!

Update. I've managed, unintentionally, to replicate what the PO did with the JB Weld. I used blue loctite when I torqued all the caliper bolts at all four wheels. Today, On a whim, I backed off the top caliper bolt on the passenger side front and commenced with the torque wrench at 10'lb increments. Lo and Behold... It torqued to 60'lbs with no feeling of about to give or sponginess. So, I feel a little more confident for a quick run to the local cornerstore, but I have the time-serts on order(2weeks on back order!), and a helicoil to be picked up from Oreilly tomorrow.

I used timeserts on mine. Excellent quality.

That's two for time serts! I'm still going to pick up the helicoil tomorrow, but the time serts ship in two weeks. The kit comes with 5 inserts, so I can get to the rethreaded to the wrong pitch ones in the drivers side rear with the extra's. This fine piece of machinery reminds me of an LCAC!

Why two weeks for timeserts? They strap them on the back of an ass? I would wait if I had it all apart and had a second car to use, why chew the hole up even further with a heliocoil? Sure timeserts will give you nice fresh threads but to work perfectly they need precise execution in preparation, the hole for the timesert has to be perpendicular and as square as possible, think of yourself as a human drill press when you are doing it.

Those guys give a Shade Tree Mechanic a bad name.:ah:

+1.
you can get it from amazon tomorrow.
http://www.amazon.com/TIME-SERT-Metric-Thread-Repair-1812/dp/B001JK44LG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349795563&sr=8-1&keywords=timesert

Heli-coil will be for a quick fix if I absolutely cannot wait for the Time-sert kit to come in. 2 week ship time is because its a decent solid from my buddy Ryan back in Everett Washington. It's a full metric kit with 5 of each size up to 30mm inserts. He has to finish up the job on his Legacy and doesn't want to split up the kit. I already gave him the "you don't need to send me everything" argument, but $20.00 in shipping, vice $90.00 for a single size kit? I guess I can wait. I sent him the "putting it on an ass" comment and he got a kick out of it.