SAFETY ISSUE FOR MANY GM V6 FRONT DRIVE VEHICLES!!!!!!!

[Guest jwin]

I just finished replacing all 6 in my 89'. I went to GM Parts Center.net. $132.96 for the 6 insulators + 14.28 for the 6 bolts + $7.99 flat shipping handling fee = 1 Happy Reatta. (It's her birthday this month. She deserved it)

[charlie1]

Chas1,

Ok, good to hear. I was wondering why two were skipped. As long as your tech deemed them safe, then no reason to worry. Assuming you know you can trust his judgment anyway.

I will look forward to the update on the rear. I need to do rear struts on my 91, and am not looking forward to it. Not much rust, so I am not so worried about the rear subframe being damaged, but I know many here have had a lot of difficulty removing the rear struts for replacement due to clearance issues, and the need to use a torx wrench to hold the threaded stud in place while undoing the nut.

KDirk,

I just went over to look at progress. The complete subframe is on the floor waiting for Body shop to pick it up next week. The struts are still in place on the frame so they come out with the frame assembly. The rust around the upper bushing is extensive. I hope the welder is having a good day when he attempts to rebuild the area.

I will advise. Now that everything is out of the way the complete exhaust system is being replaced with a walker aftermarket.

Charlie

[Guest Recian]

Im curious if any reatta owner here has done these themselves. Most here said they took it to their mechanic. Seems to me that these are simple to change with a big breaker or good impact gun. Get the bolts out and there's 3 10mm bolts holding the insulator in the subframe. Or is there something 20 years does to them that im missing? Mine the bolt heads are good just the washers are rusted in half and the insulators are split badly from dryrott

[Ronnie]

Here is the big problem. If you apply too much force to a rusted bolt it will break loose the caged nut up in the frame. Then you will have to cut a hole in the side of the frame to hold the nut which is a pain in the A$$. You may not have a problem at all but if the car is from the North it can look like the one in the photo on the left and break loose without warning. Other people here on the forum have done the work themselves. I have not but I have read the horror stories about problems that can occur if everything is rusted in the frame.

My car has spent it's life here in East Tennessee. You can see the condition of my cradle bushings in the photo on the right. I tried a couple of the cradle bolts on my car to see if I could turn them and I could without problems but you may not be so lucky if your car has lots of rust.

[Guest Recian]

yeah 4 of mine are like yours just the bushings are rotted. The 2 washers that are rusted the bolts look ok tho. The car also has some minor rust on the rear body between the frames and the bumper but surface nothing major. Plus the car has leaked tranny fluid ever since GM put one in it probably 15 years ago so the cradle is covered. I work in a shop so it's not like it's an option to take it somewhere but it's not an option to leave the 2 rusted ones in there when im putting so much into this car as im sure you know what ive been doing to it lately.

[Guest jwin]

Im curious if any reatta owner here has done these themselves. Most here said they took it to their mechanic. Seems to me that these are simple to change with a big breaker or good impact gun. Get the bolts out and there's 3 10mm bolts holding the insulator in the subframe. Or is there something 20 years does to them that im missing? Mine the bolt heads are good just the washers are rusted in half and the insulators are split badly from dryrott

Recian,

I just finished changing my 6 last week. If you work in a shop, I'm sure you'll be fine. Mine were original's (23 years old now, in Massachusetts btw), and the bolt comes off fine with an impact gun (even the two that were completely rotted out and crumbled into dust in my face as i was hitting them with the impact).

The one thing that caused the most trouble were the 10mm nuts on top. I couldn't break any of them free with PB blaster, heat, etc., so what i ended up doing was : 1)breaking the nuts & stud froms the insulator (which had already happened on the worst ones) 2) This leaves behind a small rectangular piece of metal (where the stud connects to the insulator) on the underside of the frame 3) 1-2 mins each with a die grinder cuts em right off. Then replace or reuse the 10mm nuts.

The first two I did before figuring this method out took me @ 2-3 hrs just to get them both out. The last two took 30 mins total start to finish.

[KDirk]

Recian,

Did my own on the 91 back in 2008. One of the worst repairs I've ever done for time and frustration involved. I have a good compressor and air tools, which helped a lot but the job was still miserable. About 10 hours start to finish, but I wasn't rushing anything to be sure I didn't make more problems for myself.

The two major problems are the main bolt threads rust up above the cage nut, making them difficult to back out. The bigger (IMO) problem is that the bolts rust into the sleeves in the center of each bushing, essentially making them one mass of rusty steel all seized together. I did get 5 of them loose after much struggling and cursing. The 6th one just would not back out. So, I used an air chisel to split the busing apart around the bolt (or what was left of it anyway) and then backed the bolt out.

One trick I always suggest is to tighten the bolt a partial turn if possible (even a 1/4 turn helps) to break the threads loose from the cage nut before trying to back it out. Of course, lots of PB blaster or your penetrating oil of choice is required in any case. Doesn't hurt to have a torch on hand as well, so long as you are careful and know how to use it.

KDirk

[Guest Recian]

Yeah i have access to all that equipment and i think i'll give it a shot before I put the engine back in the car. It's a long shot but having an extra 1000 lbs off the frame may help too.