I removed all the bolts, slid the old gasket out. I lined up the bolt closest to the front of the car then tryed to lined up the one on the back of the car and thought i had it. I slid the gasket in and started adding bolts, tightening middle then outwards, but when i got to the end the bolts closest to the firewall wouldnt turn without lots of strength so i thought i possibly might crossthread them so i took all the bolts out to start again.

Is this the right procedure? Am i missing something, i cant seem to get the end bolts lined up so they will screw in nicely. Should i remove the steering column shaft thingy thats held on by two 11mm bolts?

thanks for the help

 

i would run a tap in the bolt hole to try and clean it up. then try again.

 

once you get the threads straightened out---on the holes where the bolts don't turn easily, just start the bolts in all the holes. Don't tighten any of them until they are all well theaded in. I assume you are using 1" bolts.

 

The same exact thing happened to us when we changed the driver's side gasket yesterday. I was also worried it was cross threading or something.

We had to clean up the bolt with a thread cutter (it worked really well) then stuck an narrow air compressor extension into that hole and blew it out a bit. After that it went right in without any problems and we were done.