Hi guys.

Installing new suspension today and all was going well. Then when tightening one of the bolts on the front upper control arm, the bolt lost most of its resistance and began spinning in the nut. No matter which way I turn it just spins.

I've seen that you can get longer bolts and another nut from Honda to resolve the problem. But my issue is getting this bolt out.

Any advice?

 

Disc cutter and a new bolt?

Good luck

 

As above. Only route really! Or get some molegrips on the offending spinning nut. Should just be enough room.

 

After a little more investigation I've noticed that both ends of the bolt spin when turning the head. Indicating a stripped nut maybe?

When jacking the front up and preloading everything the bolt itself doesn't spin at all.

There is enough thread showing past the welded nut that I could probably get another nut over it and then torque up. Viable solution?

 

The nut has broken the weld,thus its turning,
grip with mole grips, do it up,wire brush the thread,oil it and re-torque.
putting another nut on it will not be correct as you will be locking a nut to an incorrect torqued fixing,
<not enough nip on the mounting>will rattle no doubt,and wear bolt..

 

The nut itself isn't turning when I attempt to tighten the bolt though? Weird!

 

Nut or bolt is striped then

 

 

If I break the weld on the nut would it give a better chance of getting the bolt out?

 

One more question, there's a possibility that I'll have to drill the bolt and captive nut off to remove everything. If I do this, I'll replace the bolt with OEM and buy a M12x1.25 nut and washer.

I've heard that by removing the captive nut, it may slightly alter the suspension alignment. It's recommended (on the US forum) to buy a longer bolt and create a "double nut" attachment point. Apparently this retains the OEM alignment of the control arm.

For the life of me I can't see how this would be possible? If anyone more knowledgeable than me has any advice on this, I'd appreciate it.