Stud broke off frame-- steering rack bolt

[brisamh]

Never a dull moment ... Final steps of replacing steering rack and bushings. D-bushing bracket has two bolts, top one bolts in to the frame, bottom is a stud that you thread a nut onto. Well while torquing said nut to spec.... Snap. The bolt breaks loose.

Can't find any threads with this issue-- what now? I found the part number which gave me some hope. But how do I go about getting the spinning stud out, and the new one in? Does it weld in, or by the grace and mercy of all that is holy can I simply spin it out and thread the new one in?

appreciate any help or suggestions

 

[Built4Run]

Never a dull moment ... Final steps of replacing steering rack and bushings. D-bushing bracket has two bolts, top one bolts in to the frame, bottom is a stud that you thread a nut onto. Well while torquing said nut to spec.... Snap. The bolt breaks loose.

Can't find any threads with this issue-- what now? I found the part number which gave me some hope. But how do I go about getting the spinning stud out, and the new one in? Does it weld in, or by the grace and mercy of all that is holy can I simply spin it out and thread the new one in?

appreciate any help or suggestions

Damn that’s a first I’ve ever seen.
That’s sucks

Is this stud a press In or thread in? Has the be one or the other, doubt it’s welded on there from the factory. But if you gotta weld one on there I’m sure thatd work,
Did the stud break from excessive force ? I.e cross threaded? Or just over torque.
Never use impacts when tightening fine thread.
I’ve learned that the hard way many times lol

 

[brisamh]

So the PO Has clearly either replaced the rack or bushings before. I noticed when removing that the nut was totally threaded. So I ordered a new one before reattaching. Was using a deep socket and CDI torque wrench, wasn't even halfway to the bracket when it snapped. I think despite the new nut, the bolt itself was torn up

 

[NJ-4Runner]

That is a real bummer. Where did it break off? Did the nut just break the threaded portion off and there is a good amount of the stud left to grab? My knee jerk reaction is to thread a big nut onto the stud, it should be tight enough to thread squarely onto the stud. Then weld the nut to the stud. Then get a breaker bar onto the nut and try to back the stud out. This is assuming that the stud is threaded. Hopefully someone can chime in and confirm this.

FYI this may have happened because you installed the U-shaped bracket upside-down. It is not immediately apparent but the one leg of the bracket is bigger (longer) than the other. It is possible that the nut is supposed to be tightened against the longer leg and you where tightening the nut against the shorter leg if that part was upside-down. This would have had you tightening the nut right against the threads of the stud, breaking it off right at the end of the threads. Just a theory.

 

[brisamh]

Update

As far as root cause -- I definitely did install that bracket upside down. I torqued to spec, but yep-- the taller part that should have been there went up top and the 1" shorter side went on the bottom. While I did torque to spec I'm sure this is part of the problem.. coupled with the fact that the stud had already been cross threaded by the PO who clearly used impacts to tighten it when doing the bushings. So when I went back to correct my issue, it was pretty damn hard to get the nut all the way off. Had my new nut at the ready, but the bolt itself was the issue at this point.... so when gently using a torque wrench to get the new nut on it must have started transferring to the stud itself and broke it free.

As far as next steps, I had my best friend come take a look-- she's a welder and thinks we can cut into the small metal sheet that blocks the area holding in the nut. It's def a welded nut. Why on earth Toyota went this route is beyond me. But I ordered a new stud and will report back over the weekend how our adventure goes

 

[MarkamisPrime]

Same exact thing happened to me when replacing my bushings
But I just went to my bolt drawer and installed a grade 8 bolt and nut
Fast easy fix and it holds just as good if not better since it’s an all thread bolt

 

[brisamh]

Installed how?? That space is tiny! Did you cut any of the metal back to expose the area.? I'd love to know exactly what you did so I can call off the welder

 

[Flemster]

This was my fix for the job. Worked great and I was able to upgrade the hardware.

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[brisamh]

Done

Updating this with our methodology for any future readers -- Flemster, looks like you broke off both the top and bottom nuts? In this case the top one was fine. So we took some inspiration from yours but didn't form a U bracket.

There's a flimsy metal plate covering the area needed to access the bolt. We cut that off and kept each piece we removed. Originally I had purchased the OEM stud from the dealer to reinstall; we were hoping to either find a new nut or reuse the old one. No such luck-- could not for the life of us find a nut that matched the pitch and diameter and the old one was siezed up.

Plan B was Flemster's route: we grabbed a grade 8 bolt, nut and lock washer from the hardware store. Cut the stud out and replaced it with the new one. We then welded the nut onto the frame, then welded the plate back in to place. Once it cooled down I hit it with a rattle can and torqued everything back to spec.

Definitely not an EASY fix, but pretty simple. I'm grateful my best friend is a welder with 18 years of experience. Made the job a piece of cake, and pretty cheap (bought her lunch).

Hopefully this can be a helpful guide for someone else down the line!

 

[jack.hanks02]

It's shit like this that makes me terrified to fix anything. Everything seems simple enough until you break more shit in the process.

Yes, I'm jaded after one month of ownership [emoji23]. Just thankful it's not my daily driver!

Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

 

[FD7683]

I snapped that exact bolt today and i'm glad there's a fix for it. For now i'll just leave it......

 

[cruisercorner]

This is great, thanks for posting your experience. I had this same exact issue happen to me just the other day. So far I've just ground out the cover for the existing welded on nut. Will prob grab some tractor supply grade 8 (or 5) hardware for a temp fix before welding new nut in like was done here.

I posted over on mud about this..

Steering rack horseshoe bracket - nut broke loose | IH8MUD Forum

 

[toverturf]

This happened to me today. Glad I found this thread. Looks like i'll be cutting that plate off and welding a new nut in. Definitely annoying.

 

[FD7683]

I never touched mine again by the way, its tight enough...