I changed the engine mounts on the saff today for Escort Cossie ones coz the old ones were absoulutely fooked they were so bad that they fell apart when we took them off!


Anyway i had to undo the anti-roll bar from the chassis, and when i had to fix it back in place i found 2 of the helicoils strip out

So in order to get home i had to nut and bolt one side and the drivers side was clamped up and my friend put a few spot welds on to hold it in place until i can get some new helicoils to repace them.

Is this a common thing to happen? & does anyone know the size of the helicoils i need to replace them with.

Thanks in advance

 

the anti roll bar mounts are captive nuts.

inside the chassis.

have to cut the floor open and use a nut and bolt

 

err there not on my car Dave they were deffo helicoiled they might be nutted on the escorts though.

 

nope, on the saff 4x4's too.

one went on mine,had to sort it.

 

Oh, hmm thats strange maybe mine is really a 1.3L then lol.

How did you 'sort' it then Dave?

 

don't ask.

i ground a hole into the chassis so i could get at the nut with a spanner.

bit drastic i know but......

not sure whether you can get at it from the floor, i.e making a hole in it to get at the nut.

 

Thats what we did today, theres a hole you can get a nut through in the chassis rail already all you have to do is line it all up. We couldnt get to the offside as the exhaust was in the way, so we suported it with a gearbox jack then tacked it to the chassis until i can go back to nut & bolt it like the other side

My friend said he has done this loads of times with normal saffs but he didnt want to cut a big hole out of my one just incase.

 

should be ok then.

 

Fingers crossed eh

I want to get that other side nut and bolted too instead of the weld.

Will be all sorted then, until we have to get it off again and find the nut drop down into the chassis rail

 

can't you weld the nut in?

 

its getting into the chassis to get the nut in place.

 

there are some vented holes inside the car that allow access to the nuts inside the chassis

 

all sierras have captive nuts

as lloyd said if you remove you carpet under the sound deadening theres vents and you can see into the chassis legs where they are

i had this on my sierr, not suprising that the captives only have two very small tacks on them

id advise to have all the captives welded up on the inside incase you have to drop the roll bar again at least none will spin anymore

 

as per lloyd and xr4x4rs top advice.