stripped out sway bar bolts

[Chuck W]

You guys should do it the way Ford Motorsport shells were done.

WAAAAAY easy.

Want to know how?
Easy welding and no brutality, all from the outside.
Less time to do all 4 positions than hack one side to death.

Want to know?
I'll have to draw a picture.

Does it really need to be all that big of a secret?

[turbofan]

draw a fecking picture ya wee baw jockey! (sorry, i work with a scotsman and he teaches us funny-sounding scottish insults....)

chuck, do you know this great secret?

[janvanv]

You guys should do it the way Ford Motorsport shells were done.

WAAAAAY easy.

Want to know how?
Easy welding and no brutality, all from the outside.
Less time to do all 4 positions than hack one side to death.

Want to know?
I'll have to draw a picture.

Does it really need to be all that big of a secret?

It's no secret boys, its just tiresome that when you make the effort to share solutions known to work and later get insulted by people saying you're a "know-it-all" and "speak condecendingly" (how the fawk are you going to speak generally to guys the whole range of expeiences and abilities here, huh?.
I mean some of us do or have done work on these and very similar cars more than full time AND MODs for years and its annoying the rude flack.

Anyway for the others who may be in this situation, and it occurs even here in the salt free NW, Ford Motorsport welded in flanged inserts from the outside. I scanned a drawing which might show clearly enough and save me drawing some thing



just above the compression strut bracket you see the two rings, those are the flanges.

You could look at the wreckers for nice tall M10 nuts with the integral flanges on Volvos and especially Saabs, grab 5-6 and go home and kiss the corners down. You'll need to drill on center the hole out to 17mm ish and tap the nut up then a quick zap on the edges of the flange (Ford TiGed the things in) and then a kiss with the old 4" grinder with the every popular 120 grit disc
I always run a bolt thru nuts when I weld them on: a single POP and a little weld spatter on the ID and maybe you don't notice till assembly and you're fawked.
Do all 4 and there is no important change.
When you run in the new bolts, get some spray grease, or motorcycle chain oil on the threads sticking thru the top of the nut.

Lets see if the Ford drawing is clear.

And Ed, you really are a sarcastic kid, you know.
I think that "respectful" thing is a front.
Go pray.

[turbofan]

sarcastic?

me?

never.


hey, there's nothing wrong with sarcasm!

that drawing doesn't look anything like what is currently sitting under my car. i don't see how the front sway bar mounts to that ..... everything you just said may as well be in portuguese---i can sortof understand what's going on, but i'm left very confused.

[Chuck W]

Just so you guys are clear, he's talking about the flanged inserts that are visible in the top of the drawing (the non-bold-outlined stuff), not the whole compression strut set-up.

I imagine even places like McMaster-Carr would have some sort of similar weld insert. Yes you need to have a welder to do this...but it would be worth it.

I had one of the factory inserts competely missing on the first XR I had. This was also in my pre-welder days. I think I wound up fishing a flanged nut down through the frame with a anti-rotation flange on it.... Worked fine as long as I never took the sway bar bracket off again
Now I just break out the welder..... *ZZZIIPPPP* done.

[John Brennan]

Don't pay any attention to the compression strut-- that is being used here in place of the sway bar that in stock cars is also the lower locating link. The car in the drawing will have a separate sway bar mounted elsewhere (Picture Pages has some nice shots of David Godfrey doing this, if you wanna know more about that). Look at the rings attached to the body of the car, where the stock mounting holes are found-- those are the flanges he's referring to.

I understand this (I think), but here's a question this raises in my mind: If you weld these flanges onto the body, they are now raised above the surface, correct? So you have changed the size and shape of the 'trough' where the bushings fit against the body-- you have enlarged it. Will not the bushing now be loose in there? With a compression strut bracket, this doesn't come into play, but with bushings designed to fit in that space, whether rubber or poly or whatever-- it seems they would now be loose if you didn't put a spacer in the trough created by the flanges equal to their thickness. Am I crazy, or what?

[turbofan]

i am so lost.... on my car there's a bracket on each side of the sway bar. it's basically a u-shaped clamp that holds the swaybar to the body. each clamp has 2 bolts. one is stripped. that flange thingy doesn't look like it would have anything to do with this. good land, i am lost.

EDIT: this is making slightly more sense...

further to what brennan wrote, wouldn't that also slightly relocate where everything sits? is that not significant?

[janvanv]

Good point John.
When finished the flanges shouldn't be more than a couple or 3 mm high.
The sway bar bushes are big rubber bushes, they'll comply just fine with the little difference.

[turbofan]

first, thanks for the help here john van, i appreciate it.

this would be great for the FAQ with a bit of editing.

i think i may be starting to understand what you're saying here... when i get home i'm going to have some fun with paint and post it on here to see if i understand what you're saying. hmmm.... i'm still confused, but increasingly less so.

i don't understand what you're saying when you say "kiss" the edges. you know, i've had an idea, and i think i'm going to do it that way. i'm going to make a plate and weld some studs to the plate, then weld the plate to the body. then i can put the sway bar on the studs and put nuts on the studs and away we go. how's that sound?

[janvanv]

Just so you guys are clear, he's talking about the flanged inserts that are visible in the top of the drawing (the non-bold-outlined stuff), not the whole compression strut set-up.

Right, it was the best piccie I could do quickly.

I imagine even places like McMaster-Carr would have some sort of similar weld insert. Yes you need to have a welder to do this...but it would be worth it.

Probably, but a nut at the local junk yard will do and might be faster.

had one of the factory inserts competely missing on the first XR I had. This was also in my pre-welder days. I think I wound up fishing a flanged nut down through the frame with a anti-rotation flange on it.... Worked fine as long as I never took the sway bar bracket off again
Now I just break out the welder..... *ZZZIIPPPP* done.

I'd do it IN ADVANCE. As I said, even here in salt free PNW, I have had the damn things pop loose and then you're "VOR".

[pyropete125]

basically about a 2.5" x 4.5" 1/8" plate with 2 nuts welded to it in the shape seen on the picture----

***about 5'o'clock position from the number '11'***

weld the plate to the framerail with the existing stock bolts removed and two holes there for clearance for the welded nuts of each plate.

nice easy laymen's terms?

definatly a good idea

pete

[turbofan]

basically about a 2.5" x 4.5" 1/8" plate with 2 nuts welded to it in the shape seen on the picture----

***about 5'o'clock position from the number '11'***

weld the plate to the framerail with the existing stock bolts removed and two holes there for clearance for the welded nuts of each plate.

nice easy laymen's terms?

definatly a good idea

pete

THANK YOU!!! i now understand completely.

mr. john van, which bolts are you talking about? i'm goin to the JY tomorrow to pick up a trailer hitch and gas cap for the minivan. i could pick up a few of those bolts while i'm there, they have 2 saab 900's there that i could steal them off... do you know where i could find them? like.... which bolts on the car? is there anything comparable on our cars so i can make sure to get the right ones?

i'm gettin this fixed... TOMORROW!!! WOOHOO!!!

[janvanv]

basically about a 2.5" x 4.5" 1/8" plate with 2 nuts welded to it in the shape seen on the picture----

***about 5'o'clock position from the number '11'***

weld the plate to the framerail with the existing stock bolts removed and two holes there for clearance for the welded nuts of each plate.

nice easy laymen's terms?

definatly a good idea

pete

THANK YOU!!! i now understand completely.

mr. john van, which bolts are you talking about? i'm goin to the JY tomorrow to pick up a trailer hitch and gas cap for the minivan. i could pick up a few of those bolts while i'm there, they have 2 saab 900's there that i could steal them off... do you know where i could find them? like.... which bolts on the car? is there anything comparable on our cars so i can make sure to get the right ones?

i'm gettin this fixed... TOMORROW!!! WOOHOO!!!

Kid, if you are going to make a nut plate, use any M10 x 1.5 nut.
Try to either clean off all the zinc plating or get a unplated nut cause zinc plate is effectively dirty and welds sheeety.

Now I said to knock the corners off the nut, right? That's so the hole you drill doesn't have to clear the distance accross the POINTS, just a bit more than the distance accross the flats, eg you can drill a smaller hole.

Get the hole too big, and the nut'll be sloppy and then you begin to wonder if you're welding it in the right place.
You have a drill bit like 5/8" or so??

[turbofan]

you know, since the merkur forum broke, i wasn't able to see your answer. i ripped off the lower a-arm bolts off a saab (they're 12's, with nice big flanges on them...) anyway, i then took a 12mm threaded stud (created by buying a long m12 bolt and cutting it in half...), threaded it into the hole, and welded it in place. it works absolutely fabulous.

now i'm blowing coolant out the exhaust. methinks i've got an expired head gasket...