how bad is this... safe enough to drive 10 min to the repair shop?

[earlyre]

so my brother sat down in mom and dad's garage to change out of his Mowing Shoes, looked over at Mom's '09 Taurus, and noticed this....

after supper, jacked up the car, took the wheel off, tried for a while to get the bolt lined up, and couldn't get it to thread into the captive nut on the other side.
Eventually he took the bolt out, to find this:

Pretty sure the threads are supposed to go all the way to the tip...
put it back together, and we're back to pic 1.

of course this is on a saturday night... dad's current plan is to take it to a local indie shop monday morning to see what they say.

 

[eljefino]

Looks like it's holding a control arm, so you need a tow if you can't figure this out.

Some bolts are NOT threaded all the way down, though. It's to help them go in straight on the assembly line. Yours is probably not going in because something shifted, but if you jack it up, move the tire, and muscle stuff around you could get it back in there. With loctite. Don't use your fingers, but use a dowel or narrower bolt (a "spud wrench" would be perfect) to get things sort of aligned then reinsert this one.

 

[earlyre]

Looks like it's holding a control arm, so you need a tow if you can't figure this out.

Some bolts are NOT threaded all the way down, though. It's to help them go in straight on the assembly line. Yours is probably not going in because something shifted, but if you jack it up, move the tire, and muscle stuff around you could get it back in there. With loctite. Don't use your fingers, but use a dowel or narrower bolt (a "spud wrench" would be perfect) to get things sort of aligned then reinsert this one.

yes, looks to be rear lower control arm.
in person it looks like there WERE threads to the tip, they've just stripped/ worn off/ etc.
had a jack under the knuckle, lifted it up to try and get the tension off. but even with the bolt out, there still seemed to be tension on the joint, and the angle involved, and with the lack of proper tools ( no pry bar, etc) he couldn't get it to line up enough to get all the way through the bush.

 

[eljefino]

Nah, that's how they look, those are tooling marks from the lathe approaching the real threads.

 

[FowVay]

Those are called pilot point bolts. They're supposed to look that way.

 

[oldhp]

Grind more of a point on the end of bolt. Put bolt in and use a open end wrench to tighten. As you are turning wrench, tap with hammer. Has worked many times for me.

 

[MaximumMini]

Chances are the vehicles weight or sway bars are causing an alignment issue so the bolt is missing the threads dead center.
Sometimes just jacking a bit more (or less) can get the threads started.

That "shouldn't" be an issue that requires a shop visit unless the bolt wont tighten once you get the threads started properly.

 

[Auto tech]

You can use a line up tool ex punch, screwdriver etc. to line everything up. Even ratchet straps, pry bar whatever you can use to move shift and line up. Put loctite on threads and install. Drive to shop and have them double check everything and check alignment

 

[Astro14]

Do what it takes to get that back in place and torqued down. Alignment tool. Crowbar. Rock the car a bit.

But do not drive it even a foot without that bolt holding the control arm in place.

 

[Auto tech]

Do what it takes to get that back in place and torqued down. Alignment tool. Crowbar. Rock the car a bit.

But do not drive it even a foot without that bolt holding the control arm in place.

 

[D60]

Good eye to catch that

 

[Dborch41]

You'll probably need to shift that control arm around a bit to get that bolt to line back up. If you manage to get it started, wrench it all the way down but don't tighten it until the car is back together and on the ground. The control arm needs to be at ride height before final tightening.

If you really want to do it right, get it nice and tight with a wrench then take it somewhere to get it properly torqued. Maybe you have handy friend with a torque wrench who can do it for you, just take them out to breakfast first!

Final thought: As if it hasn't been made clear enough, that car is NOT driveable as is. In fact, if you get it towed make sure the driver knows what's wrong before he loads the car. Suspension problems are no joke.