fitting front strut chassis to body bolt

[milton]

The body has been replaced on a rolling chassis. The Spax coilovers on the front struts need to be dropped to fit the 3/8"UNF long bolts through the tapped pads on the chassis and body bobbins. How much dismantling is needed to drop the coilovers?

[RichardHawkins]

Milton,

I don’t fully understand your problem, but I think you are trying to fit the bolts from the wrong side. I am away from home at the moment so can’t go and look at my car. If I remember correctly (always risky at my age) these bolts are installed from inside the engine compartment. There are some brackets that support the sides of the radiator, these bolts, one each side, hold the radiator support against the bobbin in the body, and then screw into the tapped hole in the chassis.

Hope this makes sense and is of some help,

Richard Hawkins

[gjz30075]

Milton, are you saying the body doesn't fully set down on the chassis, hence the bobbin in the body
doesn't line up with the tapped holes in the front upright? And you're feeling the damper coilover
is inhibiting it?

[MACCA.GLM]

Hello
Richard is rt the bolts go in from inside the body work .If I remember rt there were no holes drilled tapped in the new chassis when I changed my elan chassis as there were lots of cars had crash damage to front end and were not guaranteed to line up with the body. You can spot drill the chassis with a drill the same size as the hole in the bobbin of the body, then us the correct tapping drill to drill the hole in the chassis from the inside and tap it the correct thread.You can be sure it all lines up properly then when inserting the bolt
Regards
G

[milton]

Richard, yes, I was trying to fit the bolts the wrong way!

Greg, I tapped the chassis some time ago but now this one bolt will not fit as the bobbin is out by a fraction if a mm. I've removed some metal from the bobbin but I need to run a tap through the thread from the outside and this necessitates dropping the Spax.

[RichardHawkins]

Milton,

I would have thought yo could run the tap through from the inside.

Richard Hawkins

[MACCA.GLM]

Hi
It might work if you get a taper tap the first of 3 taps to try to pick up the thread.You might struggle with an intermediate or a plug tap. failing that a bigger drill down the bobbin hole might work depending on how much misalignment there is
Regards
G

[milton]

I tried tapping from the inside with various taps but I was reluctant to force it in case the thread was damaged.

One of the lower wishbones was removed allowing the Spax to be removed. The thread thro the strut was cleaned up from the outside and all the the bolts now fit...and the right way round!

Thanks
Milton