Soooo...after replacing pretty much the entire front suspension on my 2003 G35 coupe roughly 2 months ago, I jacked the car up, removed the wheels and went to double check all the nuts 'n bolts juuuuust to make sure everything was still nice and snug (along with "massaging" the inner fenders a tad bit to clear the Kinetix upper A-arm heim joint).

Lo and behold, the driver's side compression rod nut (the one that screws on to the welded-on "bolt" attached to the frame of the vehicle) seems to have worked it's way a little lose. No big deal right? Tighten it up and be on my merry way right? Wrong!

The nut started tightening up just like it should...and then it became very easy to turn (with a 1/2" ratchet and 19mm socket, not an impact btw). I pulled the socket off and everything looked ok so I put the socket back on went back to turning it. Gave it a few more turns and checked it again. The nut hadn't moved...at all. It spins freely but doesn't "climb" the bolt like it should when being tightened. So now I try to back it off because something is obviously wrong here. Nothing! It spins and spins but doesn't back off the bolt.

At this point I'm thinking the nut has stripped. The only thing I could think to do is take off a couple of the bolts holding the crossmember assembly to the frame, apply some downward force to the crossmember with a prybar (since it's between the compression rod and nut) and then try to get the nut off. Even though the nut would spin freely (but not move), I decided to use and impact this time just to generate some socket speed...and it worked. The nut came off!

Now for the fail. When I thought the nut was stripped, I was only 1/2 right. Not only was the nut stripped, but the bolt that's welded to the frame is as well...but only where the nut was "stuck" on it. In other words, the nut threaded on just fine and wasn't cross-threaded. The threads on the end of the "bolt" are just fine, bu the threads in the nut are toast as are the threads 1/2 way up the "bolt". AWESOME!

I know what most of you are probably thinking. Something got cross-threaded along the way from original disassembly to re-assembly...but nothing did. Nuts came off with the help of PB Blaster, a socket, breaker bar and cheater bar. Threads were cleaned and inspected before re-assembly and anti-seize was used. I'm pretty ****-retentive about all of that kind of stuff. In any case, it is what it is....the threads are history and now the hunt for a solution begins.

Checked this thread:

https://g35driver.com/forums/brakes-...-bolt-fml.html

Then checked this thread:

http://my350z.com/forum/brakes-and-s...-problems.html

...but still didn't come across to what I felt was a viable solution.

Then I found this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=fever+racing+compression+rod&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&channel=sb (tried to hyperlink directly to the page but it wouldn't work so now just click on the first google link...or you can google "Fever Racing compression rod" and click on the first link "G35 / 350Z Broken Frame Stud Repair Kit | Facebook").

This looks like the route that I'll take. By some miracle chance, does anyone have any experience with this or advice/expertise they'd like to share? I'm going to call them tomorrow and try to get more info on this kit other than what's already written.

PS: Sorry for no pics. I tried to get some but because the "bolt" section is located kind of up inside the bushing, the pics just wouldn't come out. Just imagine a bolt with the first 4-5 threads perfectly fine and then the next 5 stripped. Those of you that have compression rod experience know what I'm talking about through my long, drawn out explanations...lol!

 

Damn, man. Someone who's had a worse day than me (sorry).

So, how are the threads stripped? Are they ground down or smashed to where it basically closes the space between threads? In other words, would a tap & die set be able to rethread it? Or filing between threads?

 

I figured you'd chime in there Gdirtyfive55 lol.

Yeah from the looks of it, no chance of re-threading it unfortunately. Even if there was (like the threads were just folded over or something), I don't think I would ever trust those threads again ya know. I think my best option is to cut off the bolt at the specified area for the kit (wherever that may be), attach it however they specify to do it and go from there. Guess we shall see...

 

Yeah, the only other time I've heard of this is when someone on here snapped that stud off. Brutal. They welded it back on and it held up thru all of his updates and even after tracking it a few times. Good luck man...that is probably the worst thing I could think of having to replace. Haha

That nut is supposed to be at like 165ft/lbs, so that stud has to be SOLID.

 

EXACTLY! 165 ft/lbs!! The guy that drilled through the center of the old bolt, cut threads into the new hole and then inserted a new bolt INTO the old bolt...there's NO WAY he torqued that thing to spec! Right???

 

Nissan really did dropped a ball on the design of that bolt.

I happen to got lucky with mine. I first changed my bushing on the compression rod before it rusted solid to the bolt. So when I put new bushings on I greased the crap out of that bolt so it does not rust.

But if fails, I'd imagine that repair should not be too complicated. You ca always drill that bolt out and weld in a new one.

 

So now that I'm sitting here looking at other people's pics of the bolt via google images (and there really aren't any good ones), it looks as though the upper, non-threaded part of the bolt shaft is considerably thicker than the threaded part. I wonder what it would be to measure stock length, cut the threaded part off, drill and tap into the center of the non-threaded shaft piece so that an OEM spec bolt could be threaded into that similar to what DRIZCOL did.

It looks like he drilled into the threaded part though...and that's much thinner than the non-threaded part. Therefore it only stands to reason that the bolt he drilled and tapped for would be smaller in diameter than the original. Make sense?

I'm gonna hafta measure the OD of the two parts and do a little math to figure out how much material would be left if I were to drill into the non-threaded shaft for an OEM size bolt to fit in there at least to the top of the non-threaded part and finish at OEM length.

Then, IF it works out, I'd definitely have to rig something up in order to drill a perfectly straight hole up into the non-threaded piece...

Hmmm....

 

I see what yer saying. Would be cool if you could get like a forged steel sleeve with threads on it. What kind of steel is that OEM post made of? Just regular steel? Forged steel would be hella strong.