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Broken crossmember bolts


joey b

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They seem to like to bolt where the crossmember meets the strut tower. Any suggestion on an easy way to remove these bolts or simply replace the functionality of it?

what? you maen the studs mounted to the strut assembly and going thru the body? or???

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nice typo I had there... or something. Yeah, exactly as you stated. The bolt broke where the crossmember meets the body at the tower. The single bolt. I've had 2 of the heads shear right off.

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I'm still lost on what the hell your talking about.

 

Our cars don't have crossmembers.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but crossmembers are used on undercarriages to keep torsional twist down on the uni-body, frame, etc.

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I think he means those black bars in the engine bay. Whatever they are called

 

OHHHHH.

 

Those things. Mine got stuck on the '94. I ended up using those bolt round off things.

 

Just make sure to use anti-seize. Those bolts go right into the wheel well.

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I am still awaiting a better definition or pic.

 

If you are talking about the reinforcing "strut" bars that go between the fender wells and the radiator support... Press 1 now.

 

If you are talking about where the suspension strut tower is attached to the body and held thru where a vert STB would be... Press 2 now.

 

If you can only speak spanish... hang up and don't call here again!

 

 

 

 

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it is the first. The bars that attach near the radiator and extend back to the strut tower.

 

1990Lumina knows exactly what I'm talking about. BTW, if you ever try to remove that bolt the head is likely to snap off.

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it is the first. The bars that attach near the radiator and extend back to the strut tower.

 

1990Lumina knows exactly what I'm talking about. BTW, if you ever try to remove that bolt the head is likely to snap off.

 

are you talkng only about the bolt at the rear? I've probably broken 1000 of them.

 

 

I've fixed a few, here's how:

I grab a spare nut from my pile of parts, the specific nut is the same as used to hold the strut tower caps on. use one of those for now and replace it asap.

I raise the car.

From below I screw the nut onto the bolt shaft visible at the top of the wheel well... and torque it tight.

Then spray pb blaster on the bolt.

I will then drill into the busted bolt and try to eat away at it, without harming the car body. that's a bit of work being a grade 8990890803 bolt. YOur goal is to eat out most of the middle of the shaft to a depth of about 1/4 of an inch.

Now... get your B F breakerbar and tighten that nut you stuck on earlier. I put all my weight on a 3 foot breaker bar... thats like 300+lb feet of torque. This will force the nut to tighten on the sold part of the bolt shaft and cause the top to stretch where you have already weakened it with drilling. Sometimes it all pops out, or it snaps and leaves you with a couple chunks of metal remaining.

I clear the hole out with a small screwdriver and a hammer of more drilling as needed.... and have been successful in every attempt thus far.

when I replace the bolt (with a good used one from a j/y car) I grease the hell out of it and screw it in and out a few times to chase and damaged threads

 

How's that?

 

 

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