I'm trying to finish up this 6-month project, and now I'm down to the stupid little things. Currently that would be the hatch struts.

On the hatch/car there are four holes, only one of them looks to have threads in it for something to tighten in to..the bottom driver side hole in the actual car. I need to know what's supposed to be in those four holes, and what all I need to purchase from Honda/Autozone/etc to get hatch struts on here. I don't know if I just need four mounting pieces and the two struts, or if there's other stuff missing as well.

Pics are appreciated.

 

they all should be threaded. the pivotball of the hatch strut will thread into 2 holes on the car and 2 on the hatch. then the strut snaps onto the ball

 

Out of the four holes, only one looks threaded. The other three just look like holes cut in to the sheet metal.

I'm not seeing any way to access the other sides of those holes, so my first assumption is that I'm SOL...

 

have you tried to thread anything in there? unless theyre stripped the strut ball threads in there. theres no way to get at the back of that hole.

 

No, I haven't tried yet because I don't have the ball studs nor the struts. Wanted to wait to see what I need before buying or ordering anything.

One hole is definitely threaded as if there's a nut welded on the other side. This would be the lower driver side hole. The lower passenger side hole, as well as the holes in the actual hatch, just look like holes cut in sheet metal...no threads, nothing behind them, just plain empty. I'll get some pics here in a minute to show you what I'm talking about.

 

The back of the lower holes are accessible, barely. The lower driver side hole has a nut behind it, it does not move so I'm assuming it is welded in place or just stuck. The lower passenger side has nothing on the other side of the hole. The hatch holes have nothing on the other side.

I can find a nut to put behind the lower passenger hole, but there's no way to access the other sides of the hatch holes unless I rotozip some access holes which I'm not sure I want to do to this hatch...

Lower driver hole...


Lower passenger hole...


Upper driver hole(hatch is removed from car)...


Upper passenger hole(hatch is removed from car)...

 

on the struts there's an area around the base of them thats flattened, basically so you can fit an open end wrench around the base. holes on the body should be threaded exactly as you described them. try not to drill anything out, you'll probably wind up exacerbating the situation.

the strut assemblies come with all the hardware you need to install them. try to fit one of the longer 10mm bolts from elsewhere in your car into the holes on the hatch just to check, and see if they thread in. if they dont, try the other side.

if the holes on the hatch dont have the nut welded behind them or are missing the thread, you might want to save yourself the headache and get a new hatch, since the nuts behind those holes are installed at the factory before the outer skin has been spot welded in place. junkyard special shouldnt be more than $40 for a hatch.

refer back up to the picture of the struts earlier in the post. they've got the treaded bolt built onto a swiveling ball type dealio. once you get them from autozone or wherever, you'll see exactly what needs to be done to install them. its pretty straight forward, just make sure you hold up the hatch with something else while youre doing it, it'll save you a couple cramps.

as far as the struts

 

Definitely going to need a new hatch since those welded nuts are gone from those hatch holes. The one missing from the car body hole can be replaced, there's enough room to access the back of the hole and hold a nut there while I thread in one of those mounting studs.

Like I mentioned in my last post, I could use a rotozip or something to cut access holes in the hatch pillars so I can hold mounting nuts in there while I thread in the upper hatch strut mounting studs. May not look pretty, but I was wanting to sand/paint the inside of the hatch anyways since it came off a tan car and mine will be black. I can clean the cut edges up nicely and I'm sure no one would even notice the new rectangle-shaped holes. Just gotta figure out how big the holes need to be, and what tool I should use to hold those nuts until the mounting studs are tight. Hmm...

 

i feel your pain. ive got to do about the same to the toe adjuster on the passenger side on my hatch. theres a rolling washer with a threaded hole thats missing on that side, so i'm dreading the process on that x_X