Rear upper suspension arm replacement

[The Rovering Member]

My rear arms fought Kevin in Wickford every inch of the way. And seeing as you're in North Wales l would have thought you'd have used Jules too.

[sln8458]

This pic from Steve shows the nut?



The nut is NOT welded in place, but held in a formed slot, of folded THIN steel. If you have to put any significant force on removing the bolt the folded steel will giveway.

[johnnyb44]

What's the course of action if the captive nut lets go.
Does a new one need to be welded in.
Many Thanks,
John.

[trikey]

Originally Posted by johnnyb44

What's the course of action if the captive nut lets go.
Does a new one need to be welded in.
Many Thanks,
John.

You can either weld a standard nut in place (if you do this, clean the threads up with a tap before fitting the subframe) Or just fit the arms using a washer and nylon nut, the only issue with this is that the subframe would have to come off when the arms need replacing again.

Sent from my SM-G780G using Tapatalk

[sln8458]

Originally Posted by trikey

You can either weld a standard nut in place (if you do this, clean the threads up with a tap before fitting the subframe) Or just fit the arms using a washer and nylon nut, the only issue with this is that the subframe would have to come off when the arms need replacing again.

Sent from my SM-G780G using Tapatalk

[johnnyb44]

And in all honesty if they were to be replaced a second time I would imagine the subframe would probably need coming out due its age and corrosion issues by then anyway

[macafee2]

Originally Posted by johnnyb44

What's the course of action if the captive nut lets go.
Does a new one need to be welded in.
Many Thanks,
John.

The nuts are held in a cage, it is the cage that lets go.
The cage if not to badly damaged can be welded back in place and the nuts reused.
the sub frame needs to come off.

macafee2

[Arctic]

You can access the pocket nut while the subframe is on the car, therefore you can get some plusgas on the thread, and also tep the sides in on the pocket so it grips the nut more if it's starting to or feels like it will not move easy.

1

Maybe even add some liquid steel mix and let that set to aid removal of the bolt.

[johnnyb44]

Just had a couple of new tyres on the rear and while they where off it gave me another view of the arms.
The drivers side seems to be alot worse with some weight saving holes that shouldn't be there.After seeing it ,the alarm bells were truly ringing and called the garage who's doing the job of replacing them in a few weeks and asked if the job could be brought forward.
Thankfully he's got a slot so there now being done on the 7th of May just after bank holiday.Im sure and hoping they will get through next week for travelling to work.Once next week is done I will lay the car up ready for Tuesday 7th.
The mechanic seems unfazed about doing them and the seized bolts he's got to wrestle off.I suppose our cars or not the only ones out there that suffer from the same thing

[Arctic]

Hi John.
It has most likely been like that for some time, so i doubt it will fail in the next week or so, from the photo below you can see even if the cup which the spring resides in fails, there is a secondary support below, if that is full of rust as well then maybe but i have not seen an arm with both fully rusted through.

1

2

3

The above did not even show until i started to poke around after a broken spring.

Under the arm.
4

5

All changed to this a virtually brand new subframe upper lower arms roll bar, and drop links.
6

Back in 2022