Lower Control Arm Oops

QuirkyAero

Original poster
Member
Jun 22, 2020
19
Seattle, WA
Had a bushing fail on the lower control arm 2006 9-7x. Found many of the ball joints worn as well, so opted to do the whole unit replacement rather than just the bushings and ball joints. This involves taking the old unit out and sliding the new unit into the slot on the frame. These are not trivial tasks! When I went to replace the three bolts holding the unit in, the front bolt popped the nut off the frame. So this looks to be a tack welded nut that should never come off. Oops.

By inspection this nut was not well tacked in place. To add to my misery the nut is an Eight Sided nut. I have no eight sided sockets :smile: This particular bolt and nut get the highest tightening torque on the vehicle. Don't like the idea of using an open wrench to torque this down.

What would be the best way to deal with this? Can a typical alignment shop tack down a new nut? The octagonal nuts seem impossible to find; I am looking to substitute a suitable hex nut. At the moment I have a standard 109 16mm bolt and nut with washers installed torqued to about half required. Even with washers the contact area is well less than the original bolt and Octagonal nut. Is this likely to be a problem? Right now my next step is get an alignment.

Any insight would be appreciated!
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,262
Ottawa, ON
I had one break loose like that on my 9-7x. Had to cut it off with torches. Got a high strength nut, bolt and washers at the fastener supply store and torqued it to spec. Welding not required. Advised the alignment shop about it and the size of wrench required to hold the nut. No need to make it more complicated than it is.
 

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