Okay, today I was removing the bolts from my rear damper. Everything comes loose easily except for the bottom one. Okay...I put a breaker bar to it, and the head breaks right off the bolt. ******* great. I try the other side...well whadaya know? Breaks right off. So now I'm trying to saw off the side of the shock with the welded nut. I don't know what comes next after that. I just hope I can hammer the rest of the bolt out.

Let's see...I f'd up my A/C line when I installed my intake, broke a head stud installing my header, had to hack off the b-pipe to cat bolts while installing my exhaust, now I break MORE bolts installing my suspension. I'm thinking of stopping the performance mods now. I have never done a flawless install with performance mods. Something ALWAYS goes wrong. Funny thing is that those two bolts on my suspension are the ONLY ones I've had trouble with. The rest came out easy as a *****.

Maybe I should go for strictly "looks" now. At least I wouldn't be without a car for weeks at a time anymore because of a broken bolt.

One thing I definitely learned...mod your car as early as possible. In my case, I'm trying to mod a 7 year old car that has seen at least 4 winters.

 

I almost had them same problem as you when I was installing my springs. But I saw that it wasn't going to come out easily and I'd probably end up breaking the head off so I had to do the install a completly screwed up way in order not to break anything.

 

Once you do get those suspension bolts out, you want to use some, make that ALOT of anti-seize on the bolts. This way when you go back in a year to change something, the bolts won't break!

 

Sigh...any clue where I can get some high-quality bolts really fast? Websites, stores, etc.? I'm in the process of drilling those stock motherf*ckers off right now. And I basically destroyed my stock rear dampers by sawing off the welded nut.

****...if bolts never broke, I'd love this hobby a lot more than I do right now.

WNT KCH: I'm curious about your "screwed up" way. Maybe it's too late for me now, but I'd at least like to know.

Anti-seize...that stuff should've been put on while on the assembly line for Christ's sake.


[Modified by Dozed, 2:31 PM 8/3/2001]

 

I remember when I had my GS-R lowered at King Motorsports (April '99 w/75k miles on it then), they had to literally cut my rear LCAs off, becuase the bolts were rusted. That's why my next car is gonna be from a better climate, but I won't say what my next car may be.

P.S. Forgot to mention too..... I broke a header stud too when I installed my A'PEX(the furthest passenger side stud on the bottom).....used a Mr. Gasket copper gasket and thank goodness I have no leaks.


[Modified by MmmVTEC, 11:56 AM 8/3/2001]

 

I don't know about in Maryland, but here in NJ I go to a local ACE hardware store.

They have grade 8 AND stainless fasteners (nuts, bolts, machine screws, etc.) in ample supply.

I'm currently in the process of changing the (rather crappy, actually) mounting hardware that came with my Comptech rear anti-roll bar, most of which has either rusted or broken.
BTW, if anybody is has one of these and needs to replace the endlinks (which rotted out on my car), I highly recommend FK stainless steel rod ends. I got them from Baker: http://www.bakerprecision.com/rodend2.htm

 

Not to make you feel worse but I had no problems with my rear suspension as a matter of fact the only bolts i have sheared off completely without a chance were the ones on the bpipe.. muffler side. However now that I said this im probably going to be cursed and when I pull the motor this weekend... uh oh heh... wish me luck. I would invest in some PB Buster, its damn good stuff... its really cheap... and its great to spray at those friends that come over to touch all you stuff and just make smart *** remarks - it shoots about 6 - 8ft.. no ****... just be carefull if you spray it on a bolt close to ya because it'll end up all over you from the overspray - it also smells terrible but does a number on rust.

 

Liquid Wrench....one of those great things to spray on frozen bolts before trying to get them off. It's helped me with a lot of different things, and most hardware stores carry it.

 

Use factory bolt's. Dont ever use a braker bar take a rubber mallet and tap the wratchet or open end until the bolt starts to turn that is what i have always done.

 

let me tell you this almost happens everytime on honda and acuras,the bushing in the lca has a metal insert that bonds w/ the bolt. be sure to use a grade 8 bolt btw... and if youre reusing the stock shock break off the welded nut and use a regular nut. (two of em to lock t in place)

 

same **** happened on aLmoSt-vtec's sus work this past few days.. he had to buy a whole new LCA at one point! WTF!???!

yes anti-sieze should have been used at the factory!!!!

 

I've wanted to wrench on my GSR myself, but worry that if something breaks, I'll be taking a bus for a couple days. Once I get a beater car, I will.

 

Update: Finally got the rear shocks off. I gotta thank my dad for all the help...since he was the one pounding and drilling 'til 9:00 while I was at work. Though I wish those bolts came out easy...since I really wanted to accomplish this project myself.

Part of the bolts are still in the LCA. Both LCAs are in the freezer...I will break those bastard bolts off.

Hmm...ACE hardware store, eh? I'll have to find one around here. Dam Trak Auto doesn't have any bolts that I need. I mean...*severely* understocked.

Now that I think about it, I've tackled everything out there (except for internal engine mods), so there's something to rejoice about. Maybe the worst is already over....

dc24me: A beater would help a lot. Just make sure you get a beater that you would like driving. I have a spare Mazda truck that serves as the family beater that I HATE driving.

 

I got first dibs on a 91 CRX DX next spring if a collegue at work deceides to go the S2000 or MR2 route. It's a bit dinged but it's a rust free VA car, totally stock, one owner, but it will be hard not to do anything to it. I'd probably just to some I/E, springs and shocks and put my 95gsrs on. But it could easily get out of hand with S2000 silver stone metallic paint, SIR nose with a B16a, Volk CE28Ns in Bronze... and not exactly qualify for daily driver/beater status. Even worse it that a friend of mine just bought his '89 CRX si back and this was the car I wanted when I was 16. D'oh.