smeltjr

This is a bitch. 96 EX. The nuts that hold the bolts for the front lower torque mounts are welded inside the frame rail. Seen some posts but no real fix. I did this tonight and fortunately have a buddy who works in a body shop.

First, if it is the front bolts, it is worse. We did the drivers side. You have to use a hole saw to cut through the frame rail to access. In the way of the front bolt rail is the washer bottle and the ac drier. Gotta pull the fender skirt and pull the front bumper cover to get a drill in there. We used a 1 5/8" hole saw and cut through the son of a bitch. From there you can get perfect access to the inner frame rail nut, which is a broken off 17mm. Spray the thing then stick a propane torch in and heat the son of a bitch. An offset 17mm inside the rail and a 14mm breaker for the bolt from the bottom and unscrew it.

From here options are two. If You have no a/c or power steering you can probably just screw it down and tape it over as it will be fairly easy to access. If you have a/c suggest that you weld the nut back in, which is what we did. That mount has to come off to get the a/c belt on and it would be a bitch to open up a taped over hole and pull washer bottle, etc. He stated that the outer frame rail is not where the strength of the cars support is so the hole really isn't affecting anything. At least on a daily driver. We did weld the hole piece back on, but he said it would be just as good covering the hole with waterproof foil duct/vent tape.

The passenger side he got off without breaking. Series of heating the bolt from the bottom. We chased all the threads and put antisieze on em. Suggest heat from the bottom on these first if you feel any resistance at all. Make a couple turns and then heat it again. This was no fun. Poor design.