I don't remember the removal of the bracket to be all that difficult on my N/A OM617 - must be the same part as the OM616. I'd certainly remove the bracket if it looks like it will let you!

My vote is to see if you could get away with a heli-coil. Littlest amount of change to the existing set up.

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!