Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Frozen nuts...........is there a cure ? Will the captive nuts ever stop turning ?



Well never a truer term was invented. Simply remove the bolts highlighted inside the passenger footwell, bonnet gutter, front apron and inside engine bay front. ( 1/2 bolts ) p.s the upper ones are rather awkward.

After seven and a half hours interspersed with bleeding knuckles, cramped knees, aching back and a pair of broken glasses approx half of the bolts are removed.

The remainder either spin in their captive nuts or are rusted solid.

I did manage to remove the front bumper ( Rubber - but very heavy ) as the previous owner
had only fastened two of the four and obviously removed it recently as a socket did break when
pressured.This was a welcome diversion due to the above frustrations.

At this stage I must confess I did the macho male thing and Ignored the normal advice and bought the largest & cheapest socket set on sale at the auto shop.
How I wish I was Intelligent and experienced.
Still, why is experience is something you always get after you need it.

Keep in touch for a blow by blow account of my MGB-GT restoration on a budget and clueless as the weeks unfold and the wife see's less and less of me.

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4 comments:

Fufferfour said...

Its easy to see why I broke my glasses.

They are rimless you see ( actually without them I don't)

They were placed on the widowsill above the white wire stuff.

They obviously fell off the sill. Then ya great dolt stood on them.

Or young son No 1 did it and did not say or realise.

Either way its added another £230 to the restoration cost.

Will I ever get some good news ?

zoe said...

"and the wife sees less and less of me."

i thought that was why men pretended to do things in the garden/shed/garage.

Anonymous said...

Not sure if you are still after a captive/seized nut solution but in case you are. I had the same problem getting the hinges off my GT. I tried impact screwdrivers, releaseing oil, easy outs etc and they all failed. What did work was this. I drilled a pilot hole down the shaft of the screw, then increased its diameter one drill bit at a time. Stop JUST before you start mangling the captive thread. Then pick the remnants of the screw or bolt out of the captive thread with a fine set pliers (it will come out fairly easily). Finish off by running a tap along the thread to clean it up. With a spinning bolt (like on your wings), glue the head to the wing with Araldite then continue as before. Once the bolt is out, a neat tack weld will 'recapture' the captive nut, (you may have a bit more thread cleaning to do).

Anonymous said...

Havn't had such a laugh for a long time!Keep it up!