While putting in my rear disk brakes into my 89 si last night, I ran into a problem with the compensation arm (connects to end of trailing arm). The bolt that secures the compensation arm to the body is spinning. The nut that is inside the body that this bolt secures to seams to have rusted and loosened. At the moment, I am unable to tighten down this bolt completely the arm can move back and forth in its slot (about 3/4" to 1" of play). This will obviously not be good to drive on, but not sure if anyone around here has run into the same problem, and what they did to remedy it. Since this point is in a unaccessable cavity, I am thinking my only option is to cut a hole from the backside (passenger compartment behind seat).

Here is a pic of the part, I can get a pic of my actual setup if nessesary. The comp arm is part 15, and its the bolt 37 that goes into the nut in the body of the car that is rusted/spinning.

 

tsk tsk.....you know you shouldn't have been messing with that bolt anyway

I guess there's not enough room to dremel or grind through the old bolt and reinstall a new one?? Definitely avoid cutting through the unibody

 

 

yes, tsk tsk to me, but unfortunately I needed to remove these to install new honda ones with fresh bushings. i don't think the cavity on the ledge behind the seat holds any frame strength at that point, so I just wanted to cut out a little square to possibly slip a new nut in there. The frame rail seams to be closer to the outside of the car at this point.

 

Gotta do what you gotta do.

Doesn't sound like you have a choice

 

make sure to cover it back up tho w/ a new plate (weld it in) or alteast silicon!

last thing u want is water getting UP INTO the body.. thats NOT GOOD.

Good luck.

 

I'm doing this fix myself in 2 weeks.
I bought 4 new prothane bushings. What you have to do is cut the old bushing as close to the attachement as you can, remove the compensator arm and press the old bushing out.
Now, you'll be stuck with a hole in the body. What you do is just get a new honda bolt and buy a nut for it. Weld the nut in. I know, pain in the a$$ but that's the only way to do it. depending on the size of the hole, you may have to place a 1"X1" metal plate in that hole and weld the nut in the centre of the 1" plate. I'll take some shots of the fix.
BTW, I have the new oem honda bushing if you want it, I'll sell this for you as I bought new prothane set...
PM

 

you can't just weld a bolt straight to the body, it has to move back and forth to adjust toe.

 

hmm, good point. I was under impression that it pivots over 1 point. In that case sounds like the opening has to be made on the inside of the car, right at the lower seat level. More involved than I atticipated.

 

before you cut and weld **** man do this......

I know it sounds dumb but it happened to me.........

make sure the nut is lined up right.

i tightened that bolt one time and it got tight and then lose again. the nut was just to the left and caused a big hassle. so just make sure its in the right spot.

 

at least for me, the bolt was never succesfully removed from the nut, so I know the nut is correctly threaded onto the bolt, its just that is spinning back behind there and whatever used to keep is from spinning has now rusted and broken free.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mahatma &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Gotta do what you gotta do.

Doesn't sound like you have a choice </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

looking more closely at this whole thing I think the "surgery" must be done from inside of the car. Does any one know what the nut sliding/locking mechanism is?
I'm tempted to go to a wrecking yard and tear one up open just to make sure I know what I'm dealing with...

 

Ok, it was a pretty easy fix. Here is the order the bolt goes through ----&gt; bracket, compensation arm, body, nut, body, nut.

The last nut is a rectangular peice with a nut welded on. This is suppose to position itself in a slot that lets you adjust the toe. I suppose what happened is the middle bolt looked seized and just spun. I was using a 1/2" impact gun to loosen, so while it was spinning, that last bolt continued to loosen and bent the slot that was holding it in position. I tried to get the nut back into the slot, but it wasn't working, so I just used a standard stainless steel nut and tightened it down. I took a few pics, but they are on my computer at home. I cut about a 3" by 3" hole inside the car, and there is no structure in that location. I'm thinking about just riveting a peice back in, so I have easy access if I need to get back in there.

 

hey, Please post some pictures.

 

I'll try to get some tonight

 

those pictures would help...