piper.gras

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum, just picked up a 2003 350Z Touring Edition.

After buying the car, I found that the drivers side compression rod needed to be replaced. After getting the retaining nut off, I discovered that the bushing was fused to the bolt. Anyone have any good tips on how to get it off? I spent a few hours working on it, and made little to no progress.

Also, I've got what I imagine to be a big problem on the passenger side. When I was removing the retaining nut for the compression rod, the stud that the rod mounts to on the chassis sheared off. Is this stud replaceable, or am I totally screwed?

Thanks in advance for any advice...

Instanced

SCREWED Piper... Completely SCREWED

KornerCarver

iTrader: (2)

Please forgive my ignorance, but what is a "compression rod"?

JasonZ-YA

iTrader: (60)

The compression rod is item #11:


The stud is hanging down from the unibody and goes through the compression rod bushing on the "car side" and through the black steel bracing....

I'm thinking maybe that stud is a double sided stud.......as in it can be unscrewed?

maybe pressed in???

if not, then you need to look into finding a replacement BOLT and welding it back on....bolt with same diameter/threading as the nut you removed and have a mobile welder come out and work on it.

I will get home and check mine and maybe i can help, i have removed compression rod arms before, but never broke that stud! suxor!


-J

piper.gras

it's sometimes also referred to as the radius rod.

http://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/200...adius_rod.html

JasonZ-YA

iTrader: (60)

Your mistake was not letting pb blaster work in the bolt over night..........

From the spec picture i show above, its torqued down to 104-125 ft lbs......and its under the car, meaning it gets wet, rusted, etc....pb blaster over night there really really helps things go smooth!

There has got to be a way to replace/repair it.........no way its non-replaceable or repairable...

CAN you take pictures???

-J

piper.gras

Leaving the PB blaster on overnight would have been a better way to go...

I'll try and get a couple of pictures tonight and post them here.

Given that this stud is used on a suspension component that is commonly replaced, I find it hard to believe that the stud wouldn't be replaceable, but stranger things have happened.

piper.gras

I managed to track down someone who seems to have had the same problem on his G35. See the post below. Any opinions on this fix? Seems like it should work to me.

http://g35driver.com/forums/g-spot/2...d-diagram.html

JasonZ-YA

iTrader: (60)

^ lets see...reading it now...

edit.

I read it........did you try contacting him to get the pictures? looks like a do-able fix and sounds identical to your issue!

-J

piper.gras

I did PM him asking for the pictures, hopefully he'll get back to me. He hasn't been active on the forum in a few months though, so who knows if he'll get the message or not.

JasonZ-YA

iTrader: (60)

^ hopefully he has the option for when a pm comes to him, he gets a message link to his email.......so he may just get the email and then check his pm and reply....

but at least from his description, which doesnt seem to bad to follow, you can repair it....can you remove and re-tap like he did??

Im in for your pics.....

-J

piper.gras

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to take any pics last night...

Last night we cut the broken threaded portion of the stud off, and then we came up with the idea of welding a new piece of threaded rod onto what's left of the existing stud rather than trying to drill and tap a bolt hole in it. Hopefully we'll have a chance to get that done tonight.

Also managed to get the seized compression rod on the other side off through a combination of PB blaster, heat, torque, and a gear puller.

JasonZ-YA

iTrader: (60)

PiCs!!!?!??!?

lol..

-J

piper.gras

Ok...finally got it fixed, and a couple of pics to go along with it.

First, I cut the broken stud off at the taper. Then I went out and bought a Grade 8 9/16" bolt, cut the head off, ground the end to a taper, and welded it on to the stud.

Here are a couple pics of the fix:

The broken and subsequently cut off stud:



The bolt with the head cut off and the top tapered to accept a weld:


The finished product:


It's not perfectly straight on there, and this weld actually wasn't the final one, because it actually torqued off and cracked the first time when we went to put the cross bar back on. So I had to repeat the whole process and do it again.

Once the stud was welded on, I reassembled the suspension and took the car for a test drive to make sure the fix would work.

The test drive is where it got interesting...

First, I drove it around the block. Checked the stud. Sill good. Drove it down the street to the gas station, stopped, checked the stud. Still good. Then we decided it would be a good idea to take it through some hard turns to make sure it could handle some abuse, as we're going to autocross the car this weekend.

Now at this point, I should probably tell you all that we just bought this car last week, and have not yet registered, insured, or inspected it. So I'm driving it with an expired out of state plate on it.

As I was driving through town I saw a cop sitting on the side of the road. I drive by him slowly, he doesn't pull out behind me, so I think that everything is good. I turned off on the next street, drove for a mile or so, and then saw SUV headlights coming up very fast behind me, and then the blue lights come on. The cop came up to the car, asked for my license, registration, and insurance, of which I only had a license. I also had no proof that I even owned the car, since the bill of sale and title (oh, it's a salvaged title too by the way) were still in my truck from when we picked it up on the trailer last week. So I hand the cop my license, he goes back to his car, comes back a few minutes later, and asks if there would be a problem if his dog walked around the car and checked it out. Of course I say no, that's no problem, go ahead. The cop went back to his car, came back a few minutes later, I explained more of the story about how it was supposed to be a track car, and we were just out checking to make sure that a repair we made would hold up on the track. He asks again if his dog can come check the car out, and I say yes again, and he goes back to his truck again. Then my friend and I look at each other, and we both are thinking that the guy we just bought this car from better not have been a drug dealer. A few more minutes pass, the cop comes back to the car, hands me my license, says that he could have written me at least 4 tickets but is going to let me off, and tells me to turn around and go straight home. I'm pretty happy at this point, so I say "Thank you sir", drive off, turn around, and go home. As I get close to the road my house is on, I realize I'm driving behind yet another cop. So I maintain a respectable distance, but then the cop turns into my street, at which point I get a little concerned. I pull in behind him, worried that I'm going to have to go through this whole ordeal again, but then he just turns around and drives off. The whole thing felt like a scene from super troopers.

JasonZ-YA

iTrader: (60)

wowzers................. about the cop incident.......

as for the repair - appears to be good.............i would say to inspect it often!

its a track car and so of course it will see abuse......a failure of that magnitude can be catastrophic............

good job on the repair....

-J

piper.gras

it will definitely be inspected after every run around the track to make sure it's holding. hopefully it won't be a problem - most of the loading on that stud is lateral, and it'll be taken up by the remaining portion of the existing stud. at least that's how the theory goes...