the rear cradle bolt on my 85 just spins its the last of the 4 i have to get out .(the front 2 have the nuts off but are still in place). i dont see any access from the top. what do i have to do to get this out? i have tried to put more wait on it and it still just spins

uh oh...

I just had the same problem with my fronts... I had to cut them off.

Cut the head off. One side of my cradle also came loose like that.

Then again, you could always take a cutter and cut a hole in the cradle and weld the nut back to the rail and reweld the hole you made.

Take the fender liner out to see what you're looking for. There's a kind of welded-in nut up inside the frame that's notorious for breaking loose. If you can get in there with something, great! But most times, people end up taking a dremel tool and cutting a small access hole in the frame to grab the nut and get the bolt out. Or, if you can weld, maybe you can get a MIG in there and weld it back in place.

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Whade' "The Duck Formerly Known As Wade" Duck
'87 GT Auto
'88 Ferrario
'84 Indy

quote Originally posted by whadeduck: Take the fender liner out to see what you're looking for. There's a kind of welded-in nut up inside the frame that's notorious for breaking loose. If you can get in there with something, great! But most times, people end up taking a dremel tool and cutting a small access hole in the frame to grab the nut and get the bolt out. Or, if you can weld, maybe you can get a MIG in there and weld it back in place.

When putting the bolt back in, I used a short prybar and stuck my hand into one of the access holes to keep the nut from spinning.

thanks i have a mig i will go give that a try

it;s kinda hard to get in that far with a mig. I wen thru that last year. I removed the fender liner and someone had already made a u shaped cut there. pried it opne and grabbed the nut with a visegrip.

after I got it out, I welded som 3/4" flat stock to the long legs of the diamond plate so it could not spin again. then I slathered (that's a technical term) the threads with never-sieze before reassembly. clean the threads first with a small round wire brush, same for the bolt. when done I welded the cut back in the frame rail closed.

Remove tailights and then rear facia. Now you can see the exposed frame rails with the nuts. Support cradle weight, use a plumbers self adjusting wrench to hold the nuts and oosen them with a 1/2" impact wrench from below. If the bolts don't budge then apply heat and some PB blaster when cool. Then try again. If all goes well the Job takes about 30 minutes to complete. Those nuts are the easy one. The front bolts when rusted fast are much harder to get loose

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87GT 3.4 Turbo- 0-60 5.2 seconds -Best
Engine Controls, ECM goodies, Chip
re-programming & odd electronics stuff

I hate trying to remove the two rear ones. I had to cut a hole and burn off the loose nut thingie with a cutting torch, I also did as others have advised you to do by welding in a nut on a piece of steel plate so i could re-atach the cradel. I used a wire wheel on the frame and glued a patch on with yellow 3M trim adhesive. If I, or someone else needs in again, it is an easy job. I have read somewhere of a fella that used a saws-all to cut the bolt, removed the cradel and then did the necessary repairs. I think that is a good way to get around this curse. I wish I had read this before I took the torch to the car.

Joe

when this happens I take out the rear inner fender...
and using one of the mount holes, near the messed up bolt,
I draw and cut a hole about the size of a business card.
This gives you access to the sheet metal chassis nut and
with some Liquid wrench and some heat to start... and a
monster pair of Vise Grips you may be able to get it off...
Otherwise you can use a cutting torch in there and not ruin
the look of the lower part of the cradle at the exposed bolt.

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87 Fiero GT 5sp with Vortec L35 4300 Turbocharged V6
Bully Stage 2 clutch
Syclone intake manifold and engine management with Moates adapter and chip burner
Air/water intercooler and Devil's Own progressive water/alky injection
50lb injectors, 3 bar map sensor, Walboro fuel pump and Jabasco Intercooler pump
LM1 wideband on custom manifolds and 3" stainless exhaust system
T31/T04B S4 turbo with a Super T61 in the box
S10 caliper conversion.
Murphy's Constant Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value
Murphy's Law of Thermodynamics Things get worse under pressure.
Arthur C. Clarke "Any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"

what i did was removed the liner anc cut a 3"x3" hole and welded the nut back it was verry hard to get a clean weld in there thow

As Dennis pointed out, there is a way to get ahold of the broken loose witch hat nut, without damaging the chassis. Removal of the rear clip & rear bumper gives you access into the chassis rail from the rearend. Using a common faucet wrench, you can get the right "angle on the dangle" and grip the nut. Best to have one person focus on holding the nut, and another to work on turning the bolt. It may not be too tight, once you have a grip.

Repairing the thing can be done without causing damage, also. This involves welding the witch hat nut onto a small steel strap or plate, and re-inserting it into the chassis rail.

But it seems in most cases that the remains of the nut cage (what broke in the first place) are hard to remove without cutting open a window in the chassis rail. Doing so allows cleanup of the interior of that rail, and gives best overall access to repairs. See the "Pantera Parts" thread, there is a walk-thru in it for doing this repair.

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/F.../HTML/043414-11.html

BTW, I can't imagine using a Dremel to cut open the window. I've done it twice, and a die-grinder with a cutting wheel does the trick.


David Breeze

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Pantera Rebody Kits

[This message has been edited by opm2000 (edited 03-17-2007).]

I don't remember who but way back when- someone came up with a simple way to stop the nut from spinning. Pull back the trunk carpet and take a long drill and drill a hole down thru the frame rail as close to the bolt as you can guesstimate, then take a long rod and drop it thru the hole. The rod will carch one of the ears on the nut and stop it from turning.

Just finished doing just about all of the above and in the process of reinstalling the cradle made this observation; I don't think you want to weld the nut in place. It was originally installed in a way that allowed it to float a bit while capturing it so it couldn't rotate. Reinstalling the bolt would be a beech if you welded the nut in place and got it off axis just an rch.