Rear strut pinch bolt

[SWM]

94ATX 11th Minnesota winter/ Doing rear sus. and the strut pinch bolt is so rusted- corroded there is no way to get a wrench on it, it's almost round already. Anybody find a solution to this? If I drill it out it will no longer "pinch" Every bolt on this car has been like this one or worse. Any Ideas will help! Thanks!!

 

[Electricat]

I don't have any good suggestions for that bolt, but if you do end up having to drill it out, you can just drill the hole in the spindle oversize, then use a bolt with a nut on the backside to provide your "pinch" I had to do this to one of mine, ended up with a 1/2" bolt/nut in it, works fine.

 

[FAST4DR]

Heat and Sears easy outs or similiar .

Will

 

[Off Road SHO]

Hot wrench. The bolt will melt out before the threaded assembly does. Or heat up the pinch part to bright cherry red one time; this will break the rust bond. And then weld a nut onto the rounded off bolt head. You should be able to twist it out of there then. Oxy acetylene torches are our best friends when you have a back-easter car.

Tom

 

[Ishodu]

I agree with Tom, as long as your changing the strut its well done by heating up the knuckle red hot but this will causes the oil in the strut to start to boil.

 

[F-22 Raptor SHO]

Hot wrench. The bolt will melt out before the threaded assembly does. Or heat up the pinch part to bright cherry red one time; this will break the rust bond. And then weld a nut onto the rounded off bolt head. You should be able to twist it out of there then. Oxy acetylene torches are our best friends when you have a back-easter car.

Tom

Tom is from Arizona...what does he know about rusty pinch bolts? Oh wait a sec, he did that to my transplanted michigan car.

 

[Grifter]

One of my rear pinch bolts broke and I had to drill it out, I could fit a wrnech on it though. I would imagine that even if you got a wrench on it'll snap. Try to get one on and attempt to remove it, if it breaks it breaks, you can always drill it out.

 

[SHO Continental]

I wouldn't use a torch so close to the strut.. when installing my intrax's on my Illi car we broke the head off one of the pinch bolts and just cut it on each side of the strut tab and replaced both rear brake assemblies with gen1s...

 

[SWM]

Update! Two days in and no luck, thanks for all the ideas. I've drilled about 1/3 of the way through the backside of the bolt and can't go on. I ground off a bunch of crap on the bolt and found that someone has already stripped it and seems to have a drill bit broken off in a small hole, I must be hitting hardened steel from the other side. This sucks any thoughts?

 

[SHOZ123]

Might be too late now but if you have to drill use left haded bits with the drill in reverse. They usually will back the broken bolt out preserving the threads after getting about 2/3s of the way through.

 

[platoribs]

I loked for the reverse drill bits the other day without success, where does one find them?

 

[Off Road SHO]

You'll only be able find those at places that sell machine tools. The previous owner probably snapped off an easy-out bit on the other side. Hit that side with the oxy-acet. torch and the bolt will melt out before the easy-out will. I don't think you have to worry about heating the old strut too much. If the pressure inside get too high from the heat, it will bleed off the nitrogen through the upper shaft seal. You'll be wearing cutting torch goggle anyway, and gloves, right?

Tom

 

[SHOZ123]

I loked for the reverse drill bits the other day without success, where does one find them?

www.mcmaster.com look on page 2281 or search for left hand drill bits.

 

[Shoaz]

I loked for the reverse drill bits the other day without success, where does one find them?

I bought some (a small set, but it had the size I needed) at Autozone, and I've seen them at Sears as well. Good hardware stores like Ace often have them as well.

 

[black93sho]

My rear strut pinch bolt broke on me today. It was almost all of the way out and then the head snappped off.Tried to extract it with an extractor but that didn't work, so maybe I'll drill it out. Any other suggestions would be really appreciated.

 

[artsho]

Had the same happen to me... I drilled out the bolt and installed a helicoil.....I started with a small drill bit and gradually worked my way up....Use cuttind oil......

 

[SWM]

Another update.. This past weekend I rented an oxy torch and melted alot of old paint and rust and buckled the strut but still no luck..The old broken easy out bit(Ha!) is about 3/8ths and almost fills the hole, seems to act like a heat sink. The spindle was red hot but nothing broke loose, I'm thinking of trying to remove the spindle and the strut as one piece and get it to a machine shop. Has anyone done this before? The spindle might be a complete loss, can a SLO taurus be used in place of this? Many, many thanks! 94 ATX

 

[SHOZ123]

Had the same happen to me... I drilled out the bolt and installed a helicoil.....I started with a small drill bit and gradually worked my way up....Use cuttind oil......

I would not bother with trying to rethread the spindle. Just use a bolt and nut.