Egads! Stripped steering box mounts

[phaetn]

Uh oh.

In order to be able to paint behind the steering box, where there has been a lot of paint damage from leaking brake fluid, above, I went to remove the steering box. It's a pain to get at, and the car has to be lifted so as to rotate the wheels to get the stops on the pitman arm out of the way.

I needed a breaker bar to loosen the bolts. Now two of the three of them are stripped. I cannot tighten them back and this will be a safety issue.



What's the next step? I suppose I'll have to see if it's the bolts or the thread in the frame that's stripped. If it's the latter, can an insert be welded in? I'm quite nervous as this is a hard-point on the car and steering -- with brakes -- is one of the most critical systems on the car. I even have a spare steering box, but it's the mounting that I'm worried about...

Cheers,
phaetn

[TX82FIAT]

Cant see the image to see how bad the threads are. think bout a thread chaser with the use of some washers so the nut has a good thread to grab.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

I suppose I'll have to see if it's the bolts or the thread in the frame that's stripped.

I'm not quite sure I understand you here. In all the spider steering boxes I've seen, the box is held to the "frame" with 3 long bolts and 3 nuts (with 3 washers of course). The nuts are towards the outside, that is, in the wheel well on the driver's side.

Is it possible you're just turning the bolts from the engine bay and the nuts on the other end are just spinning?

What I do to remove a steering box is put a box end wrench on the bolt heads and use a ratchet on the outer nuts. When the nuts are removed, you have to move the pitman arm stops to either extreme to get two of the bolts out.

-Bryan

[phaetn]

Sorry, long day yesterday and lack of sleep last night led to a gigantic brain fart.

Of course there are nuts on the other side! Dohh! I replaced the idler on the passenger side and there were bolts ends in the wheel well. In this case the bolts are on the engine bay side so the nuts must be in the wheel well.

It's very likely I'm just spinning the nuts. The way they felt, hard to turn, then easy, hard then easy, made me think it was a stripping issue and then I didn't think my way out of it. My silliness and addled brain... It also explains how much easier it would be to hold the bolt with a box wrench in that space rather than the extensions and a 1/2" ratchet that I couldn't make fit so had to go down to a 3/8" drive. I was wondering, damn, how to they assemble these?

Maybe I can put the ratchet to better use by knocking it against my head to get some sense in there...

Nothing to see here, move along everybody.

Thanks for the replies, though. What a great place for help!

Cheers,
phaetn

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Maybe I can put the ratchet to better use by knocking it against my head to get some sense in there...

No need to do that! I shudder to think of all the bone-headed automotive things that I've done over the years...

-Bryan

[phaetn]

Okay, so I pulled it aside as I couldn't quite disconnect it all. Nevertheless, it was good enough to paint behind it if not below it.


It was a beautifully warm day and I painted the bay with POR-15. I had initially planned just to cover a rusted area, but once I got going I just kept going... At CA$80 a quart the amount I had poured would be ruined anyway (exposure to air) so I managed to get pretty much the whole bay done. I only missed the suspension mount areas. I might do them today. One coat appears to have been enough... A bit shiny but most of it will be hidden anyway and will be easier to clean, hopefully.



Cheers,
phaetn

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Nice! Just curious, what is the purpose of the 1/2" round hole in the rear firewall, about 10 inches below and to the right (in the picture) of the hood latch mechanism? Mine has a rubber plug in the hole, but I don't recall what the hole is for.

And you do remember where all those wires go, yes...?

-Bryan

[phaetn]

The hole is for the drain in the grill immediately in front of the windshield. Mine has a rubber spout that I took off as it was rusted around it -- you can see the mate on the other side. I hear that often they can plug with leaves or other debris and then water doesn't drain.

I do hope I remember where all the wires go. I looks more daunting than it is. I placed masking tape on terminal ends, connectors, and relays and numbered/lettered them so I could put them all back in the right place. Most are fairly obvious but we'll see. I also took pics to aid memory. I know some of the stuff can just get pulled as it's no longer functional (e.g. the idle plunger for emissions checks) but I'll leave well enough alone for fear of interrupting some circuit with unknown consequences.

I'm debating whether the thick wiring loom that runs parallel to the firewall should go back behind a retaining cover (which always just got messy) or if I should just wrap it with https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/cert ... lit tubing that I happen to have on hand for a cleaner look... I'll try both.

Cheers,
phaetn

[18Fiatsandcounting]

The hole is for the drain in the grill immediately in front of the windshield.

Yes, I agree with you about that drain plug hole, but the one I was asking about is smaller, and downward and to the left about 5 inches from that drain plug hole. In your picture, this hole has a brightened ring of shiny metal around it. Was it for the gas pedal linkage mechanism? I converted my original gas pedal to a cable style, so maybe I just stuck a rubber plug in the hole. Too long ago to remember.

I've used split corrugated tubing to bundle the wires, and it works pretty well although sometimes the wires want to "peek out" when you go around bends. Small zip ties also work.

Most of the end-point wiring in the engine bay is single use, that is, a disconnected wire only affects the one electrical thing that it's designed for, and disconnecting that one wire doesn't cause a cascading series of seemingly unconnected electrical issues. In fact, about the only circuits in the car that seem to have a strange interconnection (that I can think of) are the emergency hazard switch/relay/turn signals/flasher, and the wiper motor/delay relay/column switch/speed switch. Neither of which are in the engine bay.

-Bryan

[phaetn]

Yes, you’re quite right. That hole is to mount a rod in the throttle linkage. There’s a very specific cap has to go in there and can be challenging to find.

Thanks for the info read the wiring. I think I’m just gonna put back everything exactly the way it was make sure everything runs and then maybe later start disconnecting.

Cheers,
phaetn