Well, I thought I had a suspension problem in the rear but my alignment shop says the steering has play. No big deal, I'll just put in the rack and pinion from my parts car! I removed the whole thing together with the ball joints still in place. Parts car parts came out quickly and easily. Not so with the daily driver. I broke 3 of the bolts that hold the rack and pinion to the frame. The hex heads snapped right off. I used my grinder to grind the bolts down even with the frame. I did a search here and found the suggestion to knock the nuts out with a COLD CHISEL. I had never heard of a cold chisel but I went to Lowe's tonight to get one. I found it there. It is a heavy-duty item with a big handle like a bicycle grip and has a round steel plate on the striking end to protect your hand. Cost about $13. I also found very similar bolts to the originals and I got grade 8 nuts plus nylon lock nuts to go on there too. I'm not even sure if I can get up inside there to get both nuts on but we'll see.

Heading out to see what I can do. I'll let you know the outcome.

Jonathan

Wow. You seem so cool about it. I hate broken bolts, stripped threads, stuck pressure stuff, etc.

The chisel worked but not well or neatly. In fact it damaged the mounting bracket. I cannot recommend this method.

P.S. Make that four bolts. As I was putting it back together, the fourth one broke going in! Crap. Oh well...

I can be cool and calm about it because it is my wrecked daily driver that I was just trying to get a few more month's use out of before selling. I bought what will be a nice '88 a couple of weeks ago so I'm pulling all the best parts off of my driver to fix up the '88.

Jonathan

Ugh I only had to chisel off 1, I can't imagine all 4!!! You're a trooper!

Three of the four swaybar bushing bolts snapped off when I was working on a local's car. I had to drill them all out. No fun.

Hey if you want, I can send you three more bolts. I think they all come with the hex head base. But you might get three studs and a hex head base.

I broke all 4 steering rack bolts removing my rack a couple years ago, the nuts have three small tack welds on the rear side of the brackets holding them to the crossmember, they break off pretty easily with a flat head screwdriver or narrow chisel, you just pop them from the backside, prying motion and a few good taps. Much easier than drilling them out. Worked well for me.

quote Originally posted by rourke_87_T-Top: I broke all 4 steering rack bolts removing my rack a couple years ago, the nuts have three small tack welds on the rear side of the brackets holding them to the crossmember, they break off pretty easily with a flat head screwdriver or narrow chisel, you just pop them from the backside, prying motion and a few good taps. Much easier than drilling them out. Worked well for me.

I agree with the three tack welds. The rest wasn't my experience at all. Those were good ol' hearty AMERICAN tack welds on mine! They weren't coming off for love or money. I almost chiseled a quarter of the way through the nut before in finally lost it's battle. Rest in peace, tough little bastards!

Anyway, I talked to the guy who's interested in buying it. He said he has metal fab friends and can get new brackets made. If he's not worried about it, there's no need for me to.

Jonathan

I broke all 4 sway bar bolts too, lol, they're tough to drill out, the drill bits broke, I drilled a small relief into the soft plate that floats in the frame rail, hammered them straight up and out, the floating plate that the bolts thread into is very soft, almost like lead, so I just put a couple seat track nuts inside the frame rail with one finger through the access hole in the frame rail, slipped a 13 mm box end wrench in there to hold the nuts while I popped the bolts in from the bottom. I've broke every nut and bolt on my '87 T-Top because it sat for about 15 yrs. Frame was solid but all the hardware was seized, couldn't imagine what that was like, never again.

quote Originally posted by L67: Three of the four swaybar bushing bolts snapped off when I was working on a local's car. I had to drill them all out. No fun. Hey if you want, I can send you three more bolts. I think they all come with the hex head base. But you might get three studs and a hex head base.

Is this a reference to my nose badge trouble? LOL

Jonathan

Yeah.

PF Flyer is parting out an '86 and he's going to see if he can cut out the mounting brackets for me. There's an easy fix. I'll just include them with the car when I sell it.

Jonathan