Supra510 Posted August 31, 2004 Share Posted August 31, 2004 I converted the rear of my 510 wagon to use Koni coilover swhich have Heim joints. I welded 2 tabs which the shock mounts go in between then a bolt through 1 tab, into the Heim joint, out the other tab and then the nut to tighten the bolt. The bolts are 1/2 inch and fit as tightly as anything I can find in the Heim joint. I searched and found similar problems, mostly with strut nuts being loose or camber plates, but this is a bit different. As described in these other posts it sounds like a hammer hitting the car over smaller bumps, e.g expansion joints, railroad tracks etc. Do I need to weld the nut onto one of the tabs? I drilled the holes in the tabs a little bigger than the bolt (obviously) maybe the bolt is moving in the hole that little bit. Anyway any suggestions would be great. Anthony '71 510 wagon, '91 Supra Turbo engine (327 rwhp) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted September 1, 2004 Share Posted September 1, 2004 Assuming that the mono ball isn't loose in the joint (and that does happen), I'd say you have 2 options: 1. tighten the crap out of the bolt to keep it from shifting when you hit a bump 2. weld the nut to the plate so that it can't shift. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted September 1, 2004 Share Posted September 1, 2004 Hi Anthony, I'm glad you asked this question. Something I've seen far too much of, and while using regular bolts is an acceptable solution, it isn't necessarily the 'proper' solution! The nicest way I've seen of using rod ends is in a situation where you use a full shouldered bolt sized correctly for the rod end, and both sides of the bracket have holes reamed to the size of the bolt as well. The shoulder should be the same length as the thickness of the brackets+rod end, and should not be able to be tightened down more than that. Sorry for the poor picture, but here is an example: You can see in the picture that the bolt isn't any longer than necessary. Also the shouldered section ends flush with the mounting bracket. The nice part of this is that NONE of the loads are placed on the threaded section, decreasing the chance of failure for a given size. (ie: you can use a smaller shoulder bolt and have the same strength as a larger threaded bolt) Ah, a better picture: Using standard threaded bolts with through holes will lead to slop, and it will likely wear the holes larger over time and increase the slop even more. By all means try other methods first, this is sortof the 'money is no object' approach... the things we engineers want to do, and accountants don't let us do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supra510 Posted September 1, 2004 Author Share Posted September 1, 2004 Thanks for the replys. The shouldered bolt method does look the best, but last night I welded the nut and tightened the bolt more. Drove it and problem gone. It's nice to be able to drive without the noise. If I run into more problems I'll persue the shouldered bolt method. Thanks again, Anthony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlalomz Posted September 1, 2004 Share Posted September 1, 2004 On my lowered 510 wagon years ago, every day after work I had the rear axle hitting the floorpan whenever I turned a hard right heading up a hill in San Francisco. It would not thunk over any other bumps. I ended up totaling the car before I tried to cure the problem so I am not sure which part of the axle was making contact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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