So I had to drop the trans in the S2k we bought for my son. Car has spent it's entire life in the south and zero signs of any corrosion anywhere or underneath. The two forward sub frame bolts proved to be a problem. I broke a socket trying to get one to break free so I figured I would take a few steps back.

I tried about everything. Hitting them with shock force, penetrant soaking, even drilling a few small holes in frame rail to soak from inside. I used a torch to heat up and shock cool several times. Nothing worked.

So I bought a induction heater and figured I would give it a try. It puts the heat right into the bolt. Took about 4-5 cycles and I got them to all break loose. Still took patience, but it worked and I dont think anything else was going to!

 

Nice! I've been meaning to get one of these heaters. I hate using torches, as it ruins everything in the surrounding area.

Make sure you use anti-seize on the subframe bolts when they go back in. Torque specs are in the FSM...its a fairly light value.

Technically, you should be replacing the subframe bolts. So keep that in mind if they're very rusty on the threads.

Hope you're using a factory clutch and not aftermarket or you'll be back at this again in a short time.

Good luck!

 

Yea, the inductor works quite nice. Car has recent clutch in it. Not sure what it is, but it is pretty aggressive. But my son learned to drive stick on a Lotus w/ a racing clutch. Worst case it goes, and I will drop the trans and swap it. Looks like quite a bit of disk still left on it.

Just want to get him on the road with it. Hopefully putting it all back together this weekend! Eager to let him drive it as he now has his permit so he has never gotten to drive the car yet.

 

Quote from Billman:

 

Nobody can read that quote. Better to post the text or post a link.

 

I would if I could! I made a screen shot when I first saw that thinking I was going to do that for my subframe bolts to keep from having to have a problem fishing out the nuts on the inside from breaking loose. Some have said they had to drill holes to fish them out, if I understand correctly. That is what the thread was about but I cannot find it now.

I put that in there so if someone was having a problem with those bolts, this is the way to remove them. I just don't have a good impact driver (yet) so I have not gone through the procedure.

 

Interesting... I use that "retighten" technique a lot too, esp for corroded household, plumbing and landscape stuff. You'd think CCW is the way to go... but going back&forth slightly and slowly b/n CCW and CW seems to work best.... in working in and clearing them corroded threads.

Like.... if the screw/bolt/nut is frozen and doesn't break loose at all at first... then try CW/tighten first (yes, sounds counterintuitive)... then try CCW after. The initial CW breaks corrosion on a microscopic/tiny movement.

Screw heads/x-pattern are usually stripped on the CCW motion (by unwanted cam-out), but not in the CW motion. So, doing a CW first, breaks it free and also with maximum grip in head (since there's no stripped head on the CW motion), and saves the screw head from stripping when going back to CCW.