Problems: BC Coilover install and rust

B

bmakkanic

Member
Location
AZ
Good morning,

A friend of mine and I semi-installed BC coilovers and ran into problems. The front install went smoothly, but the problem appeared in the rear.

When attempting to remove the rear shock on both sides, the nut and bolt thread were so rusted, that after one attempt at loosening, everything I had squared off in yellow/red below were stripped and did not budge one bit after more attempts. Effectually, rust dust was left in the socket and the nut got smaller; 12mm to 11mm to 10mm and stopped trying.

24exld2.jpg
Picture source: fxlr8's BC install DIY thread

Does anyone happen to know if the bolt that attaches to the rear shock mount in the wheel well is welded into the frame? Can it be replaced? Anyone have the rear interior removed to see what it looks like from the inside?

I just wanna know how to get that fixed if anyone can chime in...

Thank you, everyone!
(P.S. The previous owner lived in Minnesota. You would cringe if you saw my undercarriage. Treating it with POR-15 in the summer :smile (2):)
 

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Im not sure about the inside of the bolt... but if you can be caredful and use
alil heat torch with vice grip then you maybe able to get it out.....
this is not safe so please be careful and do not do it if you can't or won't

My friends would take a small torch gun and heat the bolt/ nut until they get like reddish
and then take a vicegrip in your case cuz u said the bolt pattern is no gone...and turn tha Bi^^CH
out!!!!!
 
Wow, that's bad. When I did mine, I cringe too as mine was all rusted. I spray it with PB Baster penetrating oil the day before I start and I was able to get the nuts off. Since, I coated the bolts & nuts with anti seize and it been three years until recently I install coilovers. No problem of undoing the nuts.

From memory, I pretty sure the mounting bracket can be take off the car, but it would not do you any good because the shock still mounted to it. The best thing I can think of is to cut or shave the nut off so that you can un-mount the shock and then take the bracket off the car from inside to get the two bolt clean up by running a tap onto it or get the two new bolts weld on it.

Keep us posted on how it turns out. Good luck!
 
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la_fx35 said:
Wow, that's bad. When I did mine, I cringe too as mine was all rusted. I spray it with PB Baster penetrating oil the day before I start and I was able to get the nuts off. Since, I coated the bolts & nuts with anti seize and it been three years until recently I install coilovers. No problem of undoing the nuts.

From memory, I pretty sure the mounting bracket can be take off the car, but it would not do you any good because the shock still mounted to it. The best thing I can think of is to cut or shave the nut off so that you can un-mount the shock and then take the bracket off the car from inside to get the two bolt clean up by running a tap onto it or get the two new bolts weld on it.

Keep us posted on how it turns out. Good luck!
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yeah that would be my idea as well, if the nuts are stripped heating them might not do any good. I would try and drill the nuts out or chizel them off.
 
Hey, those deep socket grip tool might work. I would definitely soak the bot/nut in PB Blaster to loosen any rust before even attempt to try this grip tool. I can't remember off hand. I took some pic before I lay down the Dynamat sound deadener. I will look to see if I have any good shoots that might show the inside of that area.
 
I had this problem with the last fx I did, luckily I was able to get the nut to screw out about an inch before the stud actually broke. I took the whole back of the fx apart in anticipation of finding a way to replace this but there is no easy way at all, even from the top... a broken stud here is a very big problem and will require quite a bit of welding and fabrication to really solve. luckily because I still had an inch of stud I was able to use a new nut and get enough grab that I was able to avoid doing anything much there, but if it was broke to the point of not being usable at all this can become a pretty big problem

to me the only way to properly repair this would be to fabricate a new top plate and then cut all the old stuff flush and weld the new plate on with new studs BUT for it to really be right and to keep both sides the same I would really want to do both sides... expect a pretty big bill for something like this, I could see several hundred bucks at least to really fix this the right way and there is no real easier way of doing it. I'd say do everything in your power to NOT break those studs if you can at all help it...
 
turbocad6 said:
I had this problem with the last fx I did, luckily I was able to get the nut to screw out about an inch before the stud actually broke. I took the whole back of the fx apart in anticipation of finding a way to replace this but there is no easy way at all, even from the top... a broken stud here is a very big problem and will require quite a bit of welding and fabrication to really solve. luckily because I still had an inch of stud I was able to use a new nut and get enough grab that I was able to avoid doing anything much there, but if it was broke to the point of not being usable at all this can become a pretty big problem

to me the only way to properly repair this would be to fabricate a new top plate and then cut all the old stuff flush and weld the new plate on with new studs BUT for it to really be right and to keep both sides the same I would really want to do both sides... expect a pretty big bill for something like this, I could see several hundred bucks at least to really fix this the right way and there is no real easier way of doing it. I'd say do everything in your power to NOT break those studs if you can at all help it...
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John, the studs aren't broken, just that the actual threads are corroded to all hell. What in my power can I do to not break the studs :(
 
get the deep extractor from the sears link, heat up the bolt and loosen it, will work. Ive done something similiar..

---------- Post added at 12:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:45 AM ----------

do u guys know why those bolts are so long?? whats their purpose?
 
well the threads being corroded is what will eventually cause the stud to break in trying to get the nut off. I was able to get my nut to turn a bit in the beginning but then hit the corroded threads, tried eveything I could to clean up the threads and go back and forth with the nut but you get to the point that you either push a little harder and it comes out or you push a little harder and it just breaks... I fought with that nut for a good 15 min and the stud eventually broke but at that point I didn't really know that it would be so much torouble to actually replace it too... I originally thought I could just buy a new stud plate and take the rear apart and replace it, I never expected that something this fragile and this prone to damage would be so difficult to service or I would have spend more time, maybe even tried to cut the nut itself and spread it open, chop it off, but try everything to protect that stud from breaking.

if the nut is rounded out in addition to the rusted stud problem then you've got a real problem on your hands... probably best at that point to try to cut the nut off, not an easy thing to do but worth he effort considering the alternative

---------- Post added at 04:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:14 PM ----------

heat is good but heat will also make the stud a lot weaker and easier to twist the stud off... these studs are very weak and very small, very stupid design for something like this to not be serviceable, the stud is part of the whole frame rail for some reason

---------- Post added at 04:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:15 PM ----------

here is a picture of my situation, you can see that the stud broke below the heavy rust line which is where the original nut went up to anyway so reinstalling a new nut has just enough threads to grab...

IMAG0278.jpg

me seeing that nut next to this mount and bolted from the top had me believing that this was a part that could be replaced from the top, looks like those bolts would have held a stud plate in place or something but when you take it all apart you realize that's not the case at all. like I said the only proper fix would be to make a new mounting plate and weld it to the rail after the old is cut flush, but this will alter the height of the strut mount by the thickness of the plate which is why I said at that point I'd do both sides just for them to be 100% the same. I'd use grade 8 hardware as replacement if it came down to fabricating a new stud plate
 

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I wonder what they would actually do... what they would consider the official "right" way to repair this... just tack welding a stud on isn't going to be adequate and dealers are not really known for there fabrication and custom work skills, there just about installing new parts but there is nothing new to be installed here as a repair, I even asked my dealer if they list anything to service this but nothing comes up...
 
the frame rail isn't really thick enough for that... I mean I could see a butcher trying to drill a hole and threading a course thread sheet metal screw in there but this would be far from a proper repair, not enough material to tap a thread really

---------- Post added at 06:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:21 PM ----------

maybe the right nutsert might work in a pinch..., probably the closest you'll get to ok without actually fabbing up a new plate, but don't forget that this will need to be centered where there was originally a stud so center drilling will be a challenge

---------- Post added at 06:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:23 PM ----------

also the frame rail is boxed and reinforced in that section so you can't drill a hole and bolt & nut it, you'd have to cut a large hole in the top and weaken it a lot, considering this is a heavily reinforced area and then there is even an aditional brace bolted over this from the top, making a hole from the top is just not a good idea
 
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A bad situation, indeed. I'm debating on returning it to stock then selling it. Thanks for all the help, everyone :)
 
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ok lets not get that crazy, it is a pita but it can be solved, worse case is it's a few hundred bucks, a lot cheaper than selling the whole car and replacing it :)

take it to a race car fabrication shop, not the kind that builds turbo's and little ricer hondas but the kind that builds race cars, search for a place that does back halves, tubs, roll bars, etc... this kind of shop can do it very easily and do it to be even better than it was originally, it's an easy job for a shop like this but again, expect it to cost a few hundred worse case.

just show them my picture, explain the problem and tell them you want the 2 studs ground flat and a new plate with studs fabricated to weld in. you remove the rear interior ahead of time because that will be there biggest apprehension in doing the whole thing
 
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