Help on thermostat housing bolt sizes...

[williamk53]

Greetings everyone! This is my first post and plea for help. I bought a 1996 Cherokee Country (4x4, 4.0 L, AW4, NP231, D30, C8.25) a couple of months ago and am slowly going through it front to back, left to right, and top to bottom! This weekend's project is the cooling system. I've drained the system and have the Prestone cleaner in it preparing it for it's new radiator, water pump, hoses, etc. My problem is the thermostat housing bolts look like they are about to strip out and are mismatched (the short one has a captive star lock washer and the long one has a captive flat washer). When I tried to order the bolts at the local dealer, the parts guy told me one of them was no longer available and the other one would have to be ordered from out of town. Does anyone know "for sure" what the thread size and pitch of these bolts are supposed to be??? The parts guy at the dealer was an idiot and and had no motivation at all to help find out. The only thing I found in my several hours of SEARCHING (so don't tell me to use the search function) was one guy who thought they were metric and someone who said to get the bolts from the junkyard. I need to know for sure because I want to try running a tap through them and putting the correct bolts in before I screw up in a really expensive way. Please help!

 

[outlander]

Welcome to the board.
There is a wealth of knowledge here.....so you're in the right place.Get yourself a tap and die set(if you don't already).Even the cheap ones have little sae/metric thread gauges that tell you the thread pitch,whether it's fine/coarse,metric or sae.From there you can tap the threads appropriately and determine what size and thread pitch bolts you need to get.
Good luck and if all else fails go to the stealer to get the bolts,but that won't do you any good if the threads need to be taped up to the next size.And as a last resort there is a "helicoil"insert that most good parts stores carry.

 

[MyJeepXJ]

The threads are likely good, and I wouldnt tap them to clean them up. I would instead get some from the junk yard, or just replacement bolts with the same thread and pitch, just same size heads for both.

Most auto shops have thread guids to help you match up replacements. Id rather go to an automotive fastner shop, they will be much more help and have a greater selection.

If you need me to locate the bolts here and ship them to you, I dont mind helping, Im out of work for an injury for a few more daze before I have to go back, and I have a little free time.

If the heads are about stripped out, slightly rounded, or fully rounded (read: any bad condition!) try some Bolt Outs (Sears), I have the generic ones made by Irwin and they are a LIFE SAVER!!!
http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/jsearch/product.jsp?pn=163815


HTH,
Andrew

 

[outlander]

Oh,I think I misunderstood your question......

 

[williamk53]

Thanks for the replies guys. Guess I'll head out to the local pick & pull. Who knows what else I might dig up!