Duster rear upper shock mounting hole cracked.

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flathead31coupe

flathead31coupe

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Looking for ideas to fix the passenger side upper rear shock mount hole... After letting A little air out of the air shocks.I noticed Is a noise coming from the passenger side rear After popping the trunk I noticed that the shock bolt was A little crooked and it looked like it was cracked a little on one Ideas ?
 
Have to weld in a plate to repair it. The shock mount was never made to support the weight of the car which happens when air shocks are used…
 
Scody21 said:
Have to weld in a plate to repair it. The shock mount was never made to support the weight of the car which happens when air shocks are used…
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OK thanks.. Probably should fix the spring issue and remove the air shocks Fix Is the mounting issue Install regular shocks.
 
Yep, remove the mount, weld up the crack and plate it, reinstall the mounting bolt. It’s a direct result of running the air shocks to raise the ride height - which takes weight of the car off of the springs and puts it onto the shocks.
 
Scody21 said:
Have to weld in a plate to repair it. The shock mount was never made to support the weight of the car which happens when air shocks are used…
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when we bought my car in '91 with 50k miles it had either air shocks or those coil over shocks on it (can't remember which), but both body shock mounts were ripped out of the floorpan....the mounts were only designed for transient damping loads, and not supporting vehicle weight.
 
michiganpat said:
when we bought my car in '91 with 50k miles it had either air shocks or those coil over shocks on it (can't remember which), but both body shock mounts were ripped out of the floorpan....the mounts were only designed for transient damping loads, and not supporting vehicle weight.
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And on that note for the OP, if one of the mounts is cracked and you need to weld and plate it then it’s probably worth doing both of them while you have it all apart and prepped to weld.
 
After further investigation it looks like there is a tube that goes through the rear cross member and the shock mount bolt goes through that... Is that correct.
 
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flathead31coupe said:
After further investigation it looks like there is a tube that goes through the rear cross member and the shock mount bolt goes through that... Is that correct.
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Yes. 7/8" nut in the trunk and you have to back it up with a wrench or crescent wrench from underneath. Kind of a 2 person job.
 
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The underneath side has no signs of any cracking.Or stress just what you see in the pictures and the trunk. What's the best way to fix this...

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Tube is broken out of the trunk sheet metal. Looks pretty minor, you might be able to just run a bead around the end of the tube to weld it to the trunk floor to get rid of the crack.

But you’ll need to clean it up better, and if you try to do that instead of cut out a section and replace it you run the risk of the sheet metal blowing out because of the rust between the trunk sheet metal and the tube, especially if the trunk sheet metal is thinned out from the rust.

The other thing you could do is get an HD washer with an internal diameter similar to the outside of the tube diameter. Then use a hole saw to drill out the sheet metal in the trunk, and then slide the HD washer over the end of the tube and weld it into the tube and the trunk as your replacement sheet metal/ tube support. Easier than making a patch, but fresh metal so easier to weld and much less risk of blow outs.
 
72bluNblu said:
Tube is broken out of the trunk sheet metal. Looks pretty minor, you might be able to just run a bead around the end of the tube to weld it to the trunk floor to get rid of the crack.

But you’ll need to clean it up better, and if you try to do that instead of cut out a section and replace it you run the risk of the sheet metal blowing out because of the rust between the trunk sheet metal and the tube, especially if the trunk sheet metal is thinned out from the rust.

The other thing you could do is get an HD washer with an internal diameter similar to the outside of the tube diameter. Then use a hole saw to drill out the sheet metal in the trunk, and then slide the HD washer over the end of the tube and weld it into the tube and the trunk as your replacement sheet metal/ tube support. Easier than making a patch, but fresh metal so easier to weld and much less risk of blow outs.
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Thanks
 
I'd weld the tube back to the trunk floor, grind it smooth and then weld a large flat washer over it to reinforce it. Both sides.
 
flathead31coupe said:
Thanks
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The repair is VERY similar to repairing a k frame where the lower control arm pivot is. You might try searching that as there are some good pictures. That will show you exactly what to do here. Same type of repair.
 
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