i picked up a full-race bar recently. and im having a hell of a time getting it installed. my first indecation that something wasnt right was that my tow hooks were all bent and fucked up. so after getting them off i cant get the full race bar lined up for ****. like non of the tow hook bolts are lined up. and all the bolts go in crooked. i tried straightening the surface out with a hammer but that didnt work too well. so i finally get one of the bolts started and the ******* nut on the inside of the frame rail breaks off.. has anyone had this happen before? will i have to cut a hole in the fram rail to get to it and put nuts behind them? has anyone else had this issue? i would just go back to using the jimfab and sell this thing but i already cut off the radiator mounts.... so im pretty much stuck using the f-r bar now.

also, the short piece which bolts to where the stock crossmember bolts. the part where the bolts go up into the frame rail from underneath, it uses the stock bolts correct? because my bolts seem to be too short and they worked fine on the jimfab and the stock crossmember. wtf?

im just so pissed right now, please tell me im not the only one having these problems....

 

hmm, anyone? still need help with this situation of my bolts not being long enough. im really confused on why the stock bolts are too short


would it be possible to just drill all the wasy through the frame rail and put a longer bolt through with a nut on the other side of the frame rail?

 

Pm Wes V and show him this thread. If i had a problem like this, its who i would ask .

 

ive got em on my da, i had the same problems with my tow hooks.

so, i ended up buying some 4" bolts, washers and nylon threaded nuts to secure the trac bar to the frame rail. i had to drill new holes in the frame rail too.

as far as the main bolt, it should have came with the ckit from full race. did you buy used or is it new?

 

bought it used guess thats why

 

yeah all the spot welds for the nuts on my tow hooks broke also. i cut the end of the rail open and just held them with vise grips to put it back together. also used lock tite.

 

im leaning more towards the longer bolts method, just cause it'll be easier. how did you cut the hole in the rail?and where did you cut the hole? on the bottom of the opposite side of the rail?

 

I don't think the long bolt idea is a good idea due to the fact that when you tighten down the bolt it would tend to crush the box section.

The easiest solution is to open up an area near the bottom where you can slide a nut up through.

Then take a nut and weld on a length of welding rod that is say 8" long, coming off the side of the nut.

Use this section of welding rod to slide the bolt up and into position and install the bolt. The welding rod also keeps the nut from rotating while you tighten the bolt.

Once done, just cut off any rod that still sticks out through the hole.

This write-up should give you an idea on what I'm talking about.

http://www.performanceforum.co....html

Wes V

 

i cant weld.... not do i have any welding supplies. i want to fix this the cheapest and fastest way possible.

im not against cutting a small hole, cause i can gt the nut up in there with a box end wrench or somthing. but i do want to remove the other nuts that are still tacked, mostly because they are old anyway and some of them are all crooked and crossthreaded. thikn an air chissel will pop them off once i get the hole cut out?

 

<U>You do not want to do this the "cheapest and fastest" way possible!!!!</U>

On an EF (and CRX) this member is a major structural item. If it fails due to not being attached correctly, you risk your life and the life of anybody that rides in your car.

I know that I'm on a soap box on this, but it's important.

Not having any welding equipment isn't a problem. Just find a shop that fabricates and installs tow hitches. (every town has one) Bring them about 8 bolts (more than you need) and have them just do the welding as I said. It's that easy.

 

i just opened the end pointing toward the front bumper. it is real thin metal there

 

i understand what your saying wes, but i really dont think it will be a problem to just put a long bolt all the way through. i mean you will have 6 bolts total through the frame, PLUS the 2 that hold the bar up into fram from underneath. do you really think that the crossmember wont be secured wel enough? i mean the guy who suggested it seems to be running it that way fine....

 

basically im not cutting the frame open unless im absolutely positive an air chissle will get the other nuts off. if i do it i want to put all new nuts and bolts in there.

so will an air chissle pop the other nuts off?

 

If I had a digital camera I'd take pics of wha tI did.

I went over to a buddy's house who has all the welding equipment and **** needed to do what we did.

We basically used an old set of tow hooks and placed them on the opposite side of the frame rail ran my 4" bolts through the x-member, through the frame rails and then through the tow hooks and bolted it down. This eliminated the crushing of the frame rail.

 

That's a good solution!

Wes

 

bump. still need to find these longer bolts. can someone take theirs off and measure how long the bolts supplied by full-race are? measure from the bottom of the head to the end of the bolt. im trying to find some bolts but no one seems to have the correct pitch, and when i find someone who does, they dont have it long enough. i measured the stock bolts to 110ish mm and the longest ive been able to find in the correct pitch (M12x1.25) in 120mm, which i feel from looking at stuff that its too short. i think i need something in the range of 150mm.

i could call full-race, but im not sure if they would give me or sell me just the bolts.

can anyone help with this?

 

call full race.
the thread pitch is pretty much the same pitch honda uses on everything.

 

yea its 12x1.25 standard for honda, but far from standard as far as bolt sizes go.

all the bolts ive found arent long enough. gonna give full-race a call tomorrow

 

update. i went the long bolt method. man what a pain in the ***. mostly because the holes were all fucked and it was damn near impossible to get it all lined up. but its on there. currently only with the 6 tow hook bolts. im still waiting on the other bolts from full-race to come in. fraim rail did not crush.

 

im having the same problem dont know which way to go about fixing it but my traction bar is coming in tomorrow any suggestions?

 

fawk... same issue here.


Granted, the body shop filled up the stock holes where the bolts are suppose to go through, I planned on having new holes drilled out. But as you can see the bottom 2 holes are way too low compared to stock location. NOTE: this is with the long bolts already bolted upward into the frame to hold the bar up.



Notice about how it's 1cm or so higher








not to mention my traction bar bolts for the LCA are too long...



already reached the bottom, and I can't just keep turning the bolt through or else it will strip the thread.



this much room left




then these suckers... out of 4 of them 1 of them was not bored out enough so it won't go through the bolt.

(top one is good, bottom one is too small on inner diameter)

 

Sooo, are you looking for fixes or just saying "me too"?

 

fixes ...lol

 

few suggestions...

use a file to enlarge the inner diameter of the spacer at fault.

also re chase and/or lube, spray some WD40 into the LCA's threads where the FR supplied bolt goes into. meanwhile, recheck all bolts and spacers fitments before installing them.

at least it's what i did when i installed these trac bars into my two ef hatches. not a single problem so far. the third one should arrive after week or two for my rex.

i came across this pic and probably will help anyone having to visualize how the three welded nuts are attached inside the frame.

 

Solutions are in the order of your problems...

1.) You should be fine drilling new holes even at that height.

2.) You can always cut the bolt down, run a tap through the LCA, or buy different bolts... (or be ghetto and stack washers).

3.) Use a drill press to "ream" it out or take it to a machine shop. Taking a file to it would take forever; however a dremel tool would suffice in a pinch.