I got a few tips offlist from the wise.  I now see that the threads
are indeed metal, but the whole metal part is made out of pot metal
of some other pretty soft metal.  the entire back and the raised
parts that stick through the glass and have the threads inside them,
are covered in some sort of rubber.  that's what confused
me.  Anyway, I took my best part and put it back together with a
little locktite and will hope for the best.  Now, any tips for curing
the incredibly annoying squeak when you open the sliding window.  I
know It's caused by the back edge of the window screen touching the
glass, but how to fix it?  I already tried sanding it down a little.  thanks.

Edward

At 10:27 PM 5/21/2007, Edward Maglott wrote:
>I have a problem with one of my sliding window latches.  I took it
>apart and found that the piece on the outside of the glass has 2
>threaded pieces which get held by screws that go through the bracket
>on the inside of the glass.  One of those threaded pieces which seem
>to be some sort of plastic, is stripped.  So that screw backed out
>and was interfering with the latch mechanism.  Basically holding it
>in the pressed down "unlocked" position.  I checked my parts van and
>found that out of 2 vans, I have 2 good outside-the-glass parts that
>don't have stripped threads.  I'm thinking about using some thread
>locking compound when I put it back together, but the locktite 242
>that I have says it can attack some plastics.  I'm testing it on one
>of the stripped ones I have, but what does the list wisdom say about
>this repair?  Thanks.
>
>Edward