I'm in the middle of changing my timing belt, water pump, etc. Everything was going along fine, thanks to the write-up found in these forums, until I went to attach the water pump back to the flange. After I finger tightened the pump to flange bolts, the small ones, I looked in the Haynes manual for torque specifications for these bolts. Not finding any specs. I began to tighten them in a criss-cross pattern so I didn't warp anything, I was down to the fourth bolt when apparently I went a little to far and stripped the blasted thing! My first thought/hope is to tap the hole and increase the size of the bolt by one size. My questions are, does anyone have any other suggestions for fixing this, and does anyone know the torque specs. for these bolts, so I don't do it again?
You can also buy a Helicoil kit .... It has a drill bit, a tap and a special tool to install the helicoil ...what you end up with is the same size thread so you use the same bolt ... Kit's about $15
Ended up going with the HeliCoil, figured if that didn't work then I could still tap up one size. Finished the timing belt, tranny flush and got everything put back together yesterday, so far no leaks and seems to run okay. I did notice a little stumble when coming to a stop a couple times. RPM dropped and it felt like she was gonna stall but then picked back up and idled fine but other than that seems fine, thanks to all of the help I've found here.