spessx

I'm currently refreshing the rear suspension on my 2001 Boxster base model and have run into an unexpected issue.

I purchased these rear strut mounts from ECS tuning:

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-hamburg-...733305900~ham/

Upon final assembly I'm tightening and torqueing all of the bolts to spec and the bolts on the strut mount break loose and start turning in the strut mount. So, I can't get them tightened down to 24 ft lbs (I can only get them to about 5 ft lbs) and I also can't get them loose to take everything back apart and replace the strut mount with another new one.

This is crazy - I've never seen this happen before. I can't really reach the backsides of the bolts where they go into the strut mount either.

Has anyone encountered this before?

tcora

Maybe try putting an impact gun on the nuts and spinning them loose that way?

spessx

Thank you for responding.

They’re just turning in the strut mount. I was able to get one of them off. I can probably chisel another one off. The third one - not sure about that one yet.

CharlesLS

Shooting from the hip, but if it's anything like what I'm visualizing then put the box end of a wrench on the nut, then use a clockwise "normal" drill bit that is half the diameter of the bolt on the very end of the strut bolt. When the drill bit binds, it will turn the bolt out of the nut, allowing you to free the part.

Bolts were probably press fit by someone that was in a hurry or something. The best brands press fit, then tack weld the heads for extra measure.

spessx

This is a good idea. I think it will work for one of the bolts. The one thats deep in the body, and less accessabke is going to be more trickey.

CharlesLS

I didn't think of stating the obvious....

If you have enough thread, you can double lock two nuts on the very end, hold the pair with a wrench, then turn the difficult nut with another wrench.

if thread length is small, you can try and epoxy a single nut to the threads to do the same, then use a torch to destroy the epoxy and remove the locked nut.

If you get the nut far enough away from the body, you can purposefully tack an arc welding rod to the bolt below the nut to act as a handle. Put a piece of aluminum/copper sheet metal down around the area to protect it. Steel bits wont stick to the dissimilar metal, preventing you from accidentally welding it in there.

76FJ55

just throwing a few ideas out, not sure if they make sense or not.

did you put lowering springs on during your refresh? if so the spring may not be holding the studs into the plate due to decreased length and therefore minimal spring load with strut fully extended (see below for possible solution)

these studs are pressed into the plate, could you have rocked them back and forth during the tightening process and worked the splines back out of the plate?, can you pull lever the nuts up to reseat the studs? isomg for example a 10mm open end to straddle the stud and pry up against the bottom side of the nut?

if the studs have worked them selves out of the plate so that the splines are no longer engaged, can you load the suspension (lower the car onto it's wheels, jack the suspension on the associated corner) to force the spring to push the studs back in?

spessx

Hi - thank for the response and the ideas.

We went back all stock - so OEM springs, struts, bumpstops, etc.

The only way I think that we could have backed the studs out of the strut mount is when we were getting the studs lined up with the holes in the body. We were actually pretty careful here. We got the strut in place and then finger tightened nuts on two of the studs. Then, we used a socket and extension (not the ratchet) to finger tighten the third down. Then we got the bottom of the strut into the carrier. I'm not sure how we could have damaged it. The studs starting spinning in the struts around 5.5ft lbs of torque (they're supposed to be torqued to 24 ft lbs).

I like you're idea about loading up the suspension. We had tried that: we put the car mostly back together and set it back on the ground so that the springs might press up against the bottom of the strut mount and studs. I was able to get one of the nuts off by doing this. I took a dremel tool and cut another one of the nuts off. There's only one left to figure out and I'm guessing that I'll have to cut it off with a dremel from the bottom but we haven't gotten there yet.