After the Jimny passed its MOT last month there was an advisory to change a Universal Joint at the axle end of the rear propshaft. Step one; remove the propshaft.

When trying to undo the propshaft bolts I noticed that the transfer case shifted around on its mounts, when it shouldn't. When I went to tighten the t-case bolts up they just kept spinning. Best to take out the t-case and see whats what.

Stripped threads, thats what. After much deliberating it was decided the best option would be to drill out the holes and rethread to take M10 bolts. You need to make sure the tap is vertial and not slewn off to the side when cutting the thread. I wanted to do both sides but.....

Someone had already repaired the threads before with a Helicoil type thread repair. There wasn't enough meat in there to tap out an M10 thread. Using quick thinking (about two days), I decided to use an M10 thread repair kit, and so went onto eBay to get one.

Bad idea. The one I got, for cheap, was a bag of crap. The provided 10.5mm drill bit wouldnt even cut through alluminium. I got a refund and went out and bought a propper set.

The new set worked a treat, I am more than impressed with the thread repair system. Considering that the previous repair had been done before I bought the SJ410, in 2003.

Once the t-case was fixed and back inplace I could finally get on with the UJ in the propshaft.

They are simple enough to do, just remember not to hit the caps with a hammer to get it back together, or the rollers in the cap will fall out and you'll spend ages taking it apart again. I was rushing a bit as we were planning to take the Jimny for a drive the next day.