3.3TT Front sway bar mount broke off while removing bolt

[narsnail]

I am actually cursed.

I have made a lot of mistakes with this car installing mods; but I literally loosened off the 14mm bolt holding the sway bar on the front driver side and the part inside that houses the bolt snapped off.

I AM LIVID.

Having settled down a bit can I just find a wide nut and get a ratchet in there to hold and tighten it? Thoughts ? FML

 

[MerlintheMad]

I just hate stuff like this. Prone to it, myself; it's probably the main reason why I do not work on my vehicles: enough frustration in life without having a hobby that makes me want to break/kill things. Hah. I hope your solution doesn't involve expense or too much more time. From the video, it does look like the bolt is being held in place by nefarious forces.

 

[narsnail]

I just hate stuff like this. Prone to it, myself; it's probably the main reason why I do not work on my vehicles: enough frustration in life without having a hobby that makes me want to break/kill things. Hah. I hope your solution doesn't involve expense or too much more time. From the video, it does look like the bolt is being held in place by nefarious forces.

I got it out, there was enough room to get a small wrench in and hold it,15mm bolt on the back. From the looks of it, it's one weld point holding it on the frame.

I'll just have to tighten it and see how it drives home. I'll have a shop weld it or another bolt back in place if it gives me any problems.

 

[Deviate]

I am actually cursed.

I have made a lot of mistakes with this car installing mods; but I literally loosened off the 14mm bolt holding the sway bar on the front driver side and the part inside that houses the bolt snapped off.

I AM LIVID.

Having settled down a bit can I just find a wide nut and get a ratchet in there to hold and tighten it? Thoughts ? FML

Happened coming off correct? Have you pressure wedged any thing between the pieces to see if a burr ends up grabbing and the bolt comes out? Whe still keeping pressure on it. Neddle nose vice grips to hold the "nut"? Cant see a ton from the vid to throw ideas

 

[Deviate]

I got it out, there was enough room to get a small wrench in and hold it,15mm bolt on the back. From the looks of it, it's one weld point holding it on the frame.

I'll just have to tighten it and see how it drives home. I'll have a shop weld it or another bolt back in place if it gives me any problems.

Nevermind my previous post

 

[narsnail]

I have the front done, I'll just tighten it and take it easy on the way home. The bolt inside is just not welded to the frame, as long as it's torqued right think I'll be ok. Bet I'm the first one to have the front take longer than the rear

 

[BertBert2019GT]

What a relief to get the nut out!

So this one time my roommate bought an old jeep. He comes inside one afternoon and says every bolt he tries to remove just breaks. I walk out to the garage and ask him to show me, he was turning the bolts clockwise thus tightening them to the point he was snapping heads off the shanks. I almost died of laughter

Obviously you know which way to turn a bolt, but this reminded of that one time. classic

 

[MerlintheMad]

What a relief to get the nut out!

So this one time my roommate bought an old jeep. He comes inside one afternoon and says every bolt he tries to remove just breaks. I walk out to the garage and ask him to show me, he was turning the bolts clockwise thus tightening them to the point he was snapping heads off the shanks. I almost died of laughter

Obviously you know which way to turn a bolt, but this reminded of that one time. classic

"Lefty loosy, righty tighty", for the dyxlesic among us.

 

[NS_Stinger]

What a relief to get the nut out!

So this one time my roommate bought an old jeep. He comes inside one afternoon and says every bolt he tries to remove just breaks. I walk out to the garage and ask him to show me, he was turning the bolts clockwise thus tightening them to the point he was snapping heads off the shanks. I almost died of laughter

Obviously you know which way to turn a bolt, but this reminded of that one time. classic

So that's exactly what came to mind when I read this thread, that he used a breaker bar and accidently tightened it until it broke the weld. It would be easy to do that with a breaker bar in your hand if you made that mistake.

 

[narsnail]

I have a really nice snap-on breaker bar that has an on-off toggle, completely idiot proof haha.

However I didn't even use a breaker bar, it was just a shit weld. I could see it through the hole just a single bead on the one side.

Regardless it's done, 4 hours for the front bar and about 2.5 for the rear.

Drove pretty easy on the way home but took a few hard corners and no sounds or weird handling so I think it's fine.

 

[Deviate]

Its a nut and bolt set up like everything else. Im sure thers no issue. If the random anxiety is gonna show its face throw some lock tite on that bitch and forget it

 

[RogueIV]

At least you can get to it. My S13 had a similar issue and I had to actually cut a hole into the frame, weld a new nut in and then weld the frame closed again. Granted that is a much older car that has seen a lot of track abuse.