cross member swing arm bolts

[RRoller123]

http://www.fastenal.com/web/home

[FiatMac]

Yep, Fastenall. RRoller123 you beat me to it! Here is a link to the bolt. 52 +mm unthreaded length. You can also get it with zinc plating, but welding on a zinc plating will introduce impurities in the weld. Also produces toxic fumes.

http://www.fastenal.com/web/products/de ... ductSearch

You can put in a location to get a local store.

[azruss]

been following this on both forums. It seems the issue here is not the size or strength of the bolt but the fine thread. That seems to be where all the damage occurs. I'm not sure why Fiat chose to use a fine thread for this application.

[spider2081]

Thanks everyone for your help. I will try a local Fastenal Store. I would like to get new bolts and nuts so I don't think matching the thread is as important as the bolts diameter, length of unthreaded, and grade are.

[RRoller123]

Fastenal is a publicly held company.

http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/quickc ... ue&time=12

Pete

[spider2081]

well I finally received the 12mm bolts from the local Fastenal store.
They are 90mm long 1.25 thread pitch grade 10.9









now to weld them in place and finish and finish the repair.

Thanks for everyone's help

[RRoller123]

Just curious: Did you order them and it took a long time for delivery? Or are you saying you finally got around to going and picking them up? I haven't used Fastenal yet and wonder how good (or fast/slow?) their service is?

[spider2081]

We have a local store a couple miles from our home. So I stopped by. The bolts were not in stock so I ordered them. Something happened with the shipment, could be weather related, but they never arrived. So I reordered them and received them 5 work days later. They did credit me the shipping charge to make up for the delay. The local store sure is a "guy toy store" I will do more business with them.

[RRoller123]

Thanks for the feedback. We have a Fastenal store about 10 miles from my house so they are an option when I can't find something at the local TV HW, but haven't had to use them so far.

[djape1977]

those bolts seem to be way too long.

[spider2081]

Yes you are correct. Great eye.

They are about 10mm longer than the ones I removed. When the cross member was on the car and the alignment shims were behind the swing arm the swing arm was sitting on the threaded portion on the mounting bolts. I thought getting the next length longer would keep the swing arm on the unthreaded portion of the bolt. The photos don't show that but now the nut is just bottoming out on the bolts shaft when it meets the swing arm. So much less of the swing arm will be sitting on the mounting bolt threaded portion then before. I just thought it might be better this way.
With the alignment shims in place and a washer behind the nut the assembly can be properly torqued. I don't think the extra length will be in the way on the car.
Comments welcome

[djape1977]

from my memory, there's very little space between the end of the bolt and swing arm. check for clearance when you install the swing arm.
be sure to tack weld the bolts to the crossmember. they're major PITA when they start turning together with the nut.

apart from that, your logic is correct.

[spider2081]

Thanks djape
I will test assemble a lower control arm with bushings and make sure it clears the new bolts through out its travel. When I took them apart there was a thick washer behind the swing bolt plus an alignment shim so the bolt was off the cross member a bit. My photos don't have them installed. Hopefully it will clear and I can tack weld the bolt heads in place.
Quite honestly I had over looked your point.

[djape1977]

you'll need to re-install some of the shims/spacers when you go to get your front suspension re-alligned, so if there's less than 5mm clearance, shorten the bolts.

[spider2081]

I reinstalled the lower control arm assembly. The arm clears the bolts with about 5mm at the closest point. I am going to go ahead with the rebuild using these bolts.

Thanks for every ones help.