Adjustable spring plates - Not!!

SC-targa · 02-09-2004, 01:51 PM

I pulled one of my spring plates off the other week to install Neatrix bushings. While I was taking everything apart, I tried my impact wrench to loosen the spring plate excentric and lock nuts. No dice.

I soaked them with pentrating oil for several days (not WD-40). Still no go/ I hit them witha torch. Still no go. I used a 4 foot pipe on a breaker bar and snapped off a short, Craftsman indistrial, 1/2" extention.

I guess I'll just use a nut splitter to get the darned things off.

Regards,

Jerry Kroeger

Elombard · 02-09-2004, 02:44 PM

I had the same experience. I had to get a shop with some huge air tools to bust them loose. They didnt charge - it took 5 secs but it was a PITA.

catuck · catuck's Garage

This may be a no brainer but are you holding the bolt with an a wrench while you attempt to loosten the nut? I found that if I try to loosten the nut without holding the bolt, it is like its welded in place, but holding the bolt it comes loose easily. Also, if you try to turn the bolt and not the nut you will never get it loose. Remember its an eccentric bolt.

89911 · 02-09-2004, 05:23 PM

Combine a torque setting over a couple of hundred pound with a couple a decades of corrosion and the "adjustability" suffers. I have been frequently informed that they were used for the final height adjustment at the factory, not to fine tune at home.

Crowbob · 02-10-2004, 03:48 AM

They are pinch bolts. They are installed then squeezed by a few thousand pound of pressure to deform them very slighlty into an oval shape to keep them from moving. If you look very closly you can probably see the teethmarks on the nut itself made when it was "pinched".

djmcmath · 02-10-2004, 05:22 AM

Jim -- question for ya. If they were super-torqued, then "pinched," as you describe ... how can I replicate that at home to ensure that I don't sag at the back? I mean, I just broke mine loose this weekend (impact wrench), adjusted my rear ride height ... now I'm wondering if it's possible to get it back together well enough to keep the back of the car off the ground. What has anybody else done to make the adjustable rear height not adjust inadvertently while driving?

Dan

Rot 911 · 02-10-2004, 05:25 AM

What Jim says is news to me. I have adjusted my ride height a couple of times and never had a problem with the nuts loosening later.

Crowbob · 02-10-2004, 05:28 AM

Unless you have a hydraulic press at home to pinch the nut, you can't. There have been some whose susp. has dropped but it is rare. The torque value is very high on these parts. I have heard some put locktite on the threads, others say this is no-no. Also do not put anti-seize on the threads. If you torque to spec. you shuld be o.k. Some retorque every once in a while like when changing tires, etc. I wouldlnto be too concerned, really.

MotoSook · 02-10-2004, 06:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kurt V
What Jim says is news to me. I have adjusted my ride height a couple of times and never had a problem with the nuts loosening later.

First time I heard of that too....

Jim,

You are talking about the bolts in the THIRD picture right?

Crowbob · 02-10-2004, 06:22 AM

Yep. Them's them.

quaz · quaz's Garage

When I did mine a couple of months ago I had to let my impact gun on maximum torgue go at the the nuts for about a minute on each. So my guess is you are not going to get them off without getting creative or applying heat (not recomended.) So once the spring plates are off take them to your favorite shop and just ask a tech to buz them off. It will take them a total of 5 minutes and they probably won't charge you.

djmcmath · 02-10-2004, 07:27 AM

I got really creative getting my spring plate nuts removed this weekend. The back pair of nuts weren't too bad -- I could get the impact wrench on them. The front two, however, were more difficult. So I set the wrench in place so that I could lift up on it to loosen. Then I set my hydraulic floor jack under the wrench and picked up the back of the car with the jack/wrench combo. I flexed my breaker bar prolly 15 degrees before they gave, and I was really concerned I had broken the wrench, from the "crack" it made. But it worked fine -- neatly broken loose with a whole lot more torque than I could possibly have put on it by hand.

Good luck,

Dan

MotoSook · 02-10-2004, 07:31 AM

Hmm..wonder if I won't be better off to keep my one-piece spring plates when I R&R my suspension next month....

CHILI · CHILI's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by Souk
Hmm..wonder if I won't be better off to keep my one-piece spring plates when I R&R my suspension next month....

Na, then you won't be able to trully corner ballance the car.

Mine were tough, that's for sure. But, I was able to get them loose. I put them in a big vice and stuck the corner of the vice under a HUGE plant (tree) pot in the front of my house. It was about 3ft X 3ft and about 3ft tall, so it was HEAVY. I put a 4 ft breaker bar on it and they broke loose. One was easeir than the other side, though.

SC-targa · 02-10-2004, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by JIMCRY
They are pinch bolts. They are installed then squeezed by a few thousand pound of pressure to deform them very slighlty into an oval shape to keep them from moving. If you look very closly you can probably see the teethmarks on the nut itself made when it was "pinched".

I can't imagine that the nuts were deformed after installation. That would have to deform the threads on the bolts also.

We do use nuts here on F-16's that are slightly ovalized before installation to eliminate the use of loctite, but the deformation is done in the nut fabrication process.

Regards,

Jerry Kroeger