Crossmember bolt troubles.

Hi folks

I have a bit of a project on the go, RB25DET Neo transplant, full respray, wide arches and pretty shiny parts.

The car is currently at the body shot and will be for some time, so wanted to ask this question so I have a plan of attack for when it returns.

I have a skyline R33 cross member powder coated and ready to be installed but I'm having trouble getting the old one off. One of the bolts seems to have snapped free inside the chassis.

Has anyone dealt with this issue? If you have, how did you resolve it?

Thanks in advance.

cut a small hole(big enough to get a cutter and welder in)in the floor above the nut and try to undo the bolt with someone holding it from the inside failing that cut it off with a angle grinder then weld a new nut in.

if you do it neatly you should be able to just weld the bit you cut out back in.

why on earth did I not think of this?! thats actually a brilliantly simple idea!

Thanks bud. I'll give that a whirl when I get the car back.

Theres a plate that sits above the chassis rail with two captive nuts welded to it, one of yours isnt captive any more. Just reweld it to the plate or hold the nut with grips or similar. No need to go cutting holes in anything.

how can you get to it if you don't cut it, is it visible/assessable from some other point?

You can see it on the top of the chassis rail. The bolts go right through the rail.

My bad, been a long time since Ive messed about with these bolts. Its the bolts that are captive in the plate, you can see one of them to the right of this picture.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3437/...878aaaa1_b.jpg

Which has now confused me because you say the bolt is spinning. You should be undoing the nuts from below the chassis rail.

You don't need to or weld anything stick a spanner in the bolt tops in the engine bay, undo from underneath, they are NOT captive nuts

The bolts shear the weld to the plate and spin.

As they are welded there is no head to speak of and having been welded don't do well with a socket as the remains of the weld stops it going on.

Weld it back to the plate.

The manual says "DO NOT REMOVE". This is one time you better believe it. There are internal tubes that fall over inside the chassis rail if the bolts are lifted out and then the chassis rail is crushed when the bolt is done up. So you take the nuts off the bottom and lower the subframe. Otherwise you will be taking an angle grinder to the side of the chassis rail to open a hole to put the tubes back in place.

thanks guys, you have pretty much cleared it all up for me. I was thinking that the bolt was in the chassis rail.:annoyed: hard to tell I guess when its just me working on my own.

Sorry my bad I thought you ment the gearbox member for somereason must be geting mader haha

Danny, you got PM