Broke the rear upper shock bolts, best fix?

[ronpapworth]

1064999

Well it appears that the 2 upper bolts that hold the rear shock on became one with rust and the mounting threads as both of them sheered off when I went to remove them. Spent most of the day drilling and trying to extract the rest of the bolt but they never did come out. I have basically drilled the entire bolt out and was using the #4 extractor and it's just not going to break loose. What I am thinking about doing is drilling the threads all the way out of the mount and then dropping 2 bolts down from the top(you can get behind the mount) and then with locking washers, put nuts on from the bottom. The upper mounts looks to be welded on to the body so I won't think there is anyway to replace that. By the looks of the design and how bad these stock bolts were rusted, SOMEBODY has had to run into this before. Whats the best fix?[addsig]

 

[dingus]

1065001

oof... i'd say to try to tap & thread it, if that doesn't work, weld something over it... what are you good at? can you weld?

-nate[addsig]

 

[ronpapworth]

1065003

I can weld, but not upside down and that close to the gas tank!

Thats not a bad idea though. I'll try my bolts first and then take it to a shop if they don't want to hold.[addsig]

 

[dingus]

1065005

yeah, i have no idea what is behind those bolts, but if worse comes to worst, you can just drill straight through (to the inside?...) and use LONG bolts and just throw some nuts on the end from the inside. [addsig]

 

[ronpapworth]

1065006

The mount has about 1-2 inches of space from the floorboard to the mount holes.

Another good suggestion with the longer bolts. The carpet would cover them up...[addsig]

 

[dingus]

1065062

yeah, and there's no welding or anything screwy that way

best of luck! keep us/me informed... take pictures...[addsig]