When a rear sway bar link wears out it will start making a clunking sound when you drive over rough ground. When you go to replace it, it is an easy D.I.Y. job until you find the hole in the trailer arm is worn out or the threaded hole is damaged. If the hole has enlarged like you see here you have a little challenge on your hands.
Problem & Solution
Common among these chassis:
Here are your options for repair:
1. Replace the trailing arm with a good used one.
2. Or install a steel helicoil threaded insert with the proper metric thread. If you don't know how to do that you will need to take it to a machine shop. If there is not enough metal there to hold the heli-coil you will have to weld around the large part of the hole and machine.
But what do you do if the stud is broken off in the trailing arm? First, drill into the center of the broken stud and try using an easy out. If the broken part is frozen and the easy out will not budge it... STOP. If you break off the easy out you will have a HUGE problem. You will have to keep drilling out the broken stud using one size larger drill bit each time. Be careful to stay exactly in the middle.. I mean EXACTLY. Eventually you will drill right up to the edge of the remaining threads. You can usually pick out those remaining thread pieces and then use a correct size metric tap to clean out the hole.