Steve:
I'm afraid I would resort to the flame wrench about now. This problem
is unusual, but is probably due to the captive nuts breaking free.
Probably the welder had a bad day.
This is one of those times when having the right tools makes the job
fairly easy, but without them I wouldn't know how to proceed.
I'd blow the heads off the bolts with either a grinder or cutting torch.
Take the bar off and get it out of the way. Drill out the location
where the captive nuts were and try to fish the nuts out of the chassis
rail so they won't rattle. Then I would make up a repair plate with new
welded nuts that can be offered up so the new nuts go through the
drilled holes. The new plate is then welded to the bottom of the
chassis rails. This will change the sway bar location by the thickness
of the plate, but this won't be a problem.
It's also possible that "Nutsert" inserts could be installed in the
existing holes in the frame rail if they were not damaged, but that
would require finding someone with the installation tool and 5/16
inserts.
Sorry, but I don't know of an easier fix for this. I've run into
similar problems with the top frame mounting nuts breaking loose, which
is another pain.
Kelvin.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-mgs@Autox.Team.Net [mailto:owner-mgs@Autox.Team.Net] On
Behalf Of Steve Shoyer
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 10:28 PM
To: mgs@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: Front sway bar mounts - still not loosening
The bolts holding up the front sway bar are still just spinning in
place. My assumption is that either 1) there's a captive nut in the
chassis leg that's now freely spinning, or 2) the bolts are stripped. I
tried jamming a pry bar under the bolt as I turned it, but that didn't
seem to help. I also tried using a vice grips to pull down on the bolt
as I twisted, and again, it didn't help. I removed the front bumper (RB
car) in the hopes of sliding some kind of bar through the chassis leg to
either lever down on the bolt or wedge against the captive nut to hold
it in place while I twist the bolt. However, I didn't realize that
there's a plate (the bumper mounting end plate) blocking access (again,
assuming that the chassis leg is hollow.
Any suggestions? Is it worth drilling through the plate to get access
into the chassis leg? Hopefully someone out there has run into and
resolved this problem.
Thanks.
--Steve Shoyer (1980 MGB)
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