Since last trip out I noticed a little movement in the front end, figuring it might be a worn bushing. I knew it was something I needed to fix but had to find where it was coming from first.
While airing down in the driveway to go for an afternoon run, I noticed the coilover bolt backed out. Told my wife and to hang tight for about an hour while I get it fixed. Like we always say, a 1 hour project quickly turns to a 3 hour project and a trip to a few hardware stores to find the right part. The first hardware store didn’t have long enough bolts in stock (just my luck). Second was Home Depot and their hardware selection blows. Drove to the Yucaipa Ace Hardware and they had just about everything besides what I needed. A few blocks up the street was Do It Best Lumber, which had exactly what I needed.
Since the bolt didn’t want to come out from the back, I couldn’t use a EZ-Out bit to pull it all the way through. So I backed it out as far as I could, then welded a long driver bit to it and drove it out the way it went in. Took me a bit to figure out a plan but once I came up with a plan, it worked out perfect.
My guess the cause of failure is the bolt didn’t have the correct shoulder length, and put the weakest part of the bolt dead center of the shock eyelet. While I was at it, I “upgraded” the hardware to socket head bolts rather than the pesky 12pt bolt that requires a super low profile (aka ground down) socket to get to the bolt. All fixed and managed to still get out for a couple hours of fun in the dirt. Took the kids bikes and let them ride around the big pad in front of this abandoned military building from many decades ago.
While airing down in the driveway to go for an afternoon run, I noticed the coilover bolt backed out. Told my wife and to hang tight for about an hour while I get it fixed. Like we always say, a 1 hour project quickly turns to a 3 hour project and a trip to a few hardware stores to find the right part. The first hardware store didn’t have long enough bolts in stock (just my luck). Second was Home Depot and their hardware selection blows. Drove to the Yucaipa Ace Hardware and they had just about everything besides what I needed. A few blocks up the street was Do It Best Lumber, which had exactly what I needed.
Since the bolt didn’t want to come out from the back, I couldn’t use a EZ-Out bit to pull it all the way through. So I backed it out as far as I could, then welded a long driver bit to it and drove it out the way it went in. Took me a bit to figure out a plan but once I came up with a plan, it worked out perfect.
My guess the cause of failure is the bolt didn’t have the correct shoulder length, and put the weakest part of the bolt dead center of the shock eyelet. While I was at it, I “upgraded” the hardware to socket head bolts rather than the pesky 12pt bolt that requires a super low profile (aka ground down) socket to get to the bolt. All fixed and managed to still get out for a couple hours of fun in the dirt. Took the kids bikes and let them ride around the big pad in front of this abandoned military building from many decades ago.
