Loose Steering Rack on 2003 Accord
 

Hello,

The steering rack threads on the sub-frame rack are stripped on my 2003 Accord and I'm able to pull the bolts on the steering rack straight out without turning (virtually acting as pins held in by gravity right now). Any one with experience fixing this with helicoil thread inserts or by cutting a hole into the bottom of the sub-frame and placing a nut on the bolt to tighten down? Seems like it's a hard place to access to properly insert a helicoil. Any insights or experience appreciated.

If you have room on top, maybe use some longer bolts and add a nut and lock washer. Or, depending on the size of the bolt holes in the rack itself, maybe stepping up to the next size in a SAE grade 8 bolt. I'd probably try those first.
I wouldn't go helicoil though. Maybe a timesert with pegs to keep it from backing loose. At least they're solid metal.

Here is a good review of stripped-thread options:

Thread Repair

I recently had a similar problem in a bottom shock mount. I, as Toecutter mentioned, used a Grade 8 SAE bolt which just fit inside the stripped metric threads. There were, for my application, considerable gyrations involved in holding the nut which was up inside the coil spring (it was a shock-inside-coil set up).

Roy