Audi day from hell, MAJOR problem

[cobram at juno.com]

DGraber460 at aol.com writes:

> and rebuild mine with new bushings. Six bolts and the sway bar- how
> tough could that be? I've had it off before, and didn't figure it would

> put up too much of a fight. WRONG!
> What I now face is 1 bolt twisted off in the chassis, and the
> opposite corner captive nut spinning in the body with the bolt partway
out.
> I can't imagine I'm the first one to suffer such a failure. Anyone
> BTDT?

Let me preface by saying I've never put a wrench to a URQ, but I had a
similar problem on the type 44 5KS.  NIGHTMARE to replace the "nut" (more
of a square chunk of threaded metal).  Very little room to maneuver, you
have to open the cage that the nut goes in, and then force the new nut
into the cage and close it up again.  I did it on a lift with air tools
and help.  I bought nuts for both sides, but after replacing one....I
just drilled out the hole on the second one, and placed a locknut on top
of this in the subframe, the bolt was long enough to reach, luckily.  To
put the nut on top, I used some windshield sealant to hold the nut in an
open end wrench, maneuvered it over the drilled out fastener in frame and
tightened.

I was tempted to cut a hole in the frame on the passenger side, but on
the lift with the wheel and fender well covers off I had a straight shot
at it.  If you're going to take it somewhere, I'd suggest a chassis or
body shop first, these guys are used to dealing with these kind of
problems on crashed cars day to day, whereas a regular mechanic might
never have come across something like this.

There were several listers who have gone through the same thing, they
offered advise when I inquired, posts can probably be found by searching
for "subframe bushing".

BCNU,
http://www.geocities.com/cobramsri/

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