Hello guys I'm having a little trouble with my subframe at the moment. I noticed that the crossmember holding the radius arms to the frame only has two bolts on it. The passenger side one tightens just fine, however; no matter how hard I try to tighten the one on the driver side it just turns and turns and turns and doesn't torque down at all. And it's causing my hub to go forwards and backwards. If anyone could tell me how I can get to what I'm assuming are lock nuts in the frame that those bolts thread to to fasten the crossmember to the frame I would greatly appreciate it. I dont to weld it, I actually want to fix it back to the way it was. Thanks in advance. I'm thinking maybe I can cut a whole right above the crossmember where the windshield fluid resovoir is and either re-align the nuts the are there or just get some new ones and maybe jb-weld them after I tighten them down some. Also it's a 2000 sh model

 

It sounds like the threads are probably ok, at least on the bolt, right?

Does the bolt go freely all the way in untill the head of the bolt contacts the cross-member? (In other words, as you start the bolt into the hole, are there any obstructions? Can you feel it contact anything?
Or does it just practically float all the way untill it contacts the cross-member?)

We need to determine if the bolt is threading at all and what sort of situation we have hardware wise between, the body, the bolt and the cross-member.

Your most likely onto the right idea, there is a steel nut that is tack-welded to the inside of the body/rail or front rad support. Corrosion happens in the area where the nut is welded, you apply too much torque and your left with a hole with no threads. If this is the case, the best case would be cutting an opening in the body and re-welding the nut in place, then welding back up the opening you've made. Second best option (The only option if you don't have access to a welder) would be to make the opening and just use a wrench on the nut as you tighten the sub-frame bolt, as a sort of "one-time" fix type thing. Problem is if you don't have a welder to re-attach the nut, its going to just spin if you ever try and remove it again. Also, you can't re-weld the cut-out opening (Ugly, technically weakens the car's body and adds the potential for rust).

-Let us know