moparmat2000
Well-Known Member
Hi Y'all,
ever have a seat track nut not come loose no matter what you do to loosen it, only to have the stud on the track snap off, or have studs on these that are just rusted all to hell. there is a simple and effective way to fix these with common tools most of us have. the only special tool you may need to borrow is a welder if you dont have one.
to start off i have a passenger side exhaust hangar bracket assembly that holds up the muffler. the car i got it from wasnt just rusty, it was Truk lagoon rusty. needless to say all 3 studs broke off in the nuts. i wasnt too worried as i have fixed these before. i am going to chronicle this with pictures, the second tutorial i will post will be how to make an identical copy of the actual muffler hangar bracket from scratch using the rusty original as a template. the original studs were 1/4-20 thread so i will be going back with the same thread using grade 5 bolts.
for starters i sandblasted the backing plate, located, center punched and using my drill press i drilled 3 #10 drill holes dead center in the head side of all 3 of the studs.
using a countersink tool , i countersunk the holes about halfway down.
using a 1/4-20 tap i tapped out all 3 holes in my bracket.
then i threaded in grade 5 1/4-20 bolts with a shank on the end into the bracket from the head side, and snugged them down. (using a bolt with a shank helps by locking the bolt down tight into the threaded holes).
then using a cutoff wheel i cut the shanks off flush with the head side of the studs.
the final step is to rosette weld on the head side to join the bolt shank to the head of the stud, grind smooth and paint. the countersinking step leaves a groove that you can weld into and still grind the weld flush and have a strong weld. my last pic i omitted the paint, but will be painting this part before installing it on my car.
ever have a seat track nut not come loose no matter what you do to loosen it, only to have the stud on the track snap off, or have studs on these that are just rusted all to hell. there is a simple and effective way to fix these with common tools most of us have. the only special tool you may need to borrow is a welder if you dont have one.
to start off i have a passenger side exhaust hangar bracket assembly that holds up the muffler. the car i got it from wasnt just rusty, it was Truk lagoon rusty. needless to say all 3 studs broke off in the nuts. i wasnt too worried as i have fixed these before. i am going to chronicle this with pictures, the second tutorial i will post will be how to make an identical copy of the actual muffler hangar bracket from scratch using the rusty original as a template. the original studs were 1/4-20 thread so i will be going back with the same thread using grade 5 bolts.
for starters i sandblasted the backing plate, located, center punched and using my drill press i drilled 3 #10 drill holes dead center in the head side of all 3 of the studs.
using a countersink tool , i countersunk the holes about halfway down.
using a 1/4-20 tap i tapped out all 3 holes in my bracket.
then i threaded in grade 5 1/4-20 bolts with a shank on the end into the bracket from the head side, and snugged them down. (using a bolt with a shank helps by locking the bolt down tight into the threaded holes).
then using a cutoff wheel i cut the shanks off flush with the head side of the studs.
the final step is to rosette weld on the head side to join the bolt shank to the head of the stud, grind smooth and paint. the countersinking step leaves a groove that you can weld into and still grind the weld flush and have a strong weld. my last pic i omitted the paint, but will be painting this part before installing it on my car.
