Camber plate bolt

[SydneyTii]

I have a set of fixed camber plates, they use press in bolts which attach the plate to the top mount bearing whilst the others on the top go through the top of the inner fender.

The bolt in question is number 20 in the pic. It goes through the camber plate and up through the in fender, whereas the one shown is in the top mount as there is no camber plate.

my question is, if the bolt is rounded in the plate can I just remove the bolt from the plate, drill a hole in the top mount and thread a new bolt with a proper head through the top mount, camber plate and up through the inner fender? Or should I just remove the plate and weld in the bolt to the plate so it doesn’t turn when I try and tighten from above?

 

[BarrettN]

I bought a set of strut bearings that had the longer studs used with the US spec spacers. I bought a set of shorter studs from BMW, but the base of the bolts strut bearins was larger diameter than the shorter ones. Possible moral of the story is that if you want to swap studs, you'd better measure them first. I'm not at home right now, fire me off a message to remind me next week if you'd like me to measure the diameter of the short OEM studs. 

[SydneyTii]

Thanks for the response, it’s not a bolt size issue. The camber plates are already in place and functioning fine, I managed to “strip” one where it’s sits in the camber plate itself, so now it just turns and won’t tighten enough, all the later camber plates have the bolts welded in place so the can’t turn, I was just going to drill through the top mount and push a bolt through both the top plate and camber plate, but maybe I should just tack them all in place so they don’t turn.

Edited October 5, 2022 by SydneyTii

[AceAndrew]

So, you have a fixed camber plate with welded offset stud patterns.  One of the upper studs (the one oriented to the inner fender side) has broken in place and spins (not allowing you to tighten it down from the top).  Is this correct?
 

Following that thought process.... you would have realized given this plate is sandwiched on top of a stock strut bearing.  If you wanted to drill out the old stud and stick a bolt in there it's the head would crash against the strut bearing not allowing the plate and bearing to be flush.

 

Therefore, your new hypothesis and question is to drill a new hole through the strut mount (offset closer to the center) that aligns with the camber plate and fender sheet metal.  Then you'd stick a bolt up through and bolt all three pieces together.

 

Yes, that should work pretty decently.  I don't see any issues, there should be enough clearance between the bolt head at upper spring perch.

[SydneyTii]

Yes you’ve got it, well done I thought my explanation was a bit hopeless🙄

Agreed the issue would be getting a flush fit hence drilling an aligned hole in the mount, I would also use a thread locker nut/ Nyloc nut so it can’t come undone and perhaps a locking washer for good measure under the bolt head.

Thre is space for a bolt head without fouling the upper spring perch as that’s where there other side of the camber plate securing bolts protrude, the ones that actually hold the plate and mount together, so I just need to be mindful of the new bolt head size. 

Edited October 5, 2022 by SydneyTii

[stephers]

Done that before and found that I had to grind the head down to about 1/2 of it's original size so that it would not make contact with the upper spring perch     Still held quite well 

 

Thanks, Rick

[SydneyTii]

Yeah the trick would be to keep the bolt head size under the size of the nuts that already face that way

Pic is not my plates but shows the bottom Nyloc bolts

Edited October 6, 2022 by SydneyTii

[Son of Marty]

Did I miss something, why not just spot weld the original stud back in the hole?

[SydneyTii]

That was one of my first thoughts in fact they all need doing as they are press in like the bearing mount, so yes that would work as well. However if I only need to do one that would save a bit of work for now.