Hi Guys,

A long shot but can anyone offer me some advice on the following please..

Mondeo Mk2 1997 V6

I went to remove the passenger side front hub as I needed to change the wheel bearing.
Anyway, whilst trying to seperate the hub carrier from the shock absorber, I managed to snap the bolt that pinches the carrier to the strut.
My question is, can I drill out the old bolt and just replace it with a longer bolt and nut or do I need a new hub carrier. ?

If I need a new carrier, where the hell can I get one as they seem to be like rocking horse shit and I dont really want to buy a brand new one !!

Thanks in advance

 

drill it use a stud extractor with plenty of heat.

 

I snapped the pinch bolt on my mates rear strut on his mondeo.It took me ages to drill the bolt out.I had the electric drill smoking lol.I would get one from a scrapy if i was you.

 

I concur wholeheartedly with Mr Licker, had this very occurrence manifest itself on Ford vehicles before, further more, we have also seen some quite novel approaches in the shape of previous repairs carried out by the automotive equivalent of Mr O'reilly.

We tend to offer a spot of heat to these blighter's in the first instance, just to get things moving, but avoid getting things too hot as it can lead to other problems & collateral damage.

 

Thanks for the advice.. Unfortunately, I dont have any way to heat it that hot and also dont have a stud extractor.

May have to bite the bullet and take it to a garage ..LOL

 

or do what glenn above did to mine, spend three hours drilling it out, and burn out two drills in the process lol

 

And snapped god knows how many drill bits and bashed my hads a few times.

 

after that day, and speaking to others who had the same problems mate. i wouldnt recommend anyone doing it without a ramp, heat, and air tools.

 

I drilled one out on mums bf's Jaguar after it snapped (same as MK2 mondeo suspension) took 20 mins with a plug in drill, used small drill bits and plenty of WD40 and worked the size up, then nut and bolted it, its been fine, and still is 9000 miles and one MOT later.

 

Grab a hub off eBay and swap the lot over - I've had several over the years on both Mk2 and Mk3. Will work out cheaper than taking it to a garage.

 

i carnt see it being a problem by replacing with nut and bolt

its like a ball joint that sits ina groove, its just to tighten the hub up to clamp the shock

check the mondeo owners club to see if anyone is breaking a car, plenty on ebay being broke

 

not just me who had problems with pinch bolts snapping

changed the near side coil spring (shock horror) on my 51 plate mondeo today; everything was going well until i come to undo the pinch bolt on the strut, it started undoing then snapped!! ended up removing the driveshaft out the hub and drilling it and using a stud extractor

went to fords and the pinch bolt was 10 quid something, plus the VAT! robbing barstards!! the hub nut i also bought was £1.14 + VAT, how they can justify that is beyond me

 

just under a year ago, when glenn fitted my spax springs, i bought four pinch bolts, and two bottom arm bolts, from ford, and they charged me over £25. and also charged me £9 for a gasket when i fitted my decat. so for a gasket, and 6 bolts, over £35 all in. robbing cunts.

 

you lot need to buy some better drills

 

remove the strut and hub and get it onto abench

then you can drill away to your hearts content

if your bits are sharp enough or good enough quality then it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to drill them out enough to be able to tap the remenants out of the way

 

Use some cobalt drills bits, the metal isn't hard as metals go, just nice and gentle working up sizes to just under the bolt size, you will find winding a tap in there will get it all out then, but at worst drill 1mm bigger and nut/bolt it, it's still clamped and perfectly safe.
tabetha