Working on my '91 W126 350 SDL front end. Trying to drop the "L" shaped bracket for the brake control rod. As normal, I'm down to the last bolt and have an issue. The "wings" that are welded to the hidden nut twisted off and now the nut free spins along with the bolt.


Anyone have a method to hold the nut to get unscrewed from the bolt?


Thanks in advance.

__________________
1988 300SE 83K+
1991 350SDL 283K+

A few choices:

1. Cut away enough of the body of the car to grab the nut with pliers (around the slot where it slides into the car).

2. Grind the head off the bolt so you can pull the bracket off, then cut the bolt with a sawzall through the hole right under the nut. The bolts cost nearly $100 and may be NLA, so make sure you have a replacement before doing that.

3. Take a flat steel bar that will fit into the hole and make a hole in it that will fit around the nut and hold it.


Also, when you put it back together, don't use anything but the factory nuts, because if you use the ones that come with the guide rod mount kits (Lemforder, etc) you will have the exact same problem as soon as you try to tighten the bolt. But, when I just did mine, there was only one set of the factory nuts left in the whole country after I bought them for my car. So, have fun I guess.

I had this same problem years ago on 'Rena 2.0'.

IIRC I just placed a bolt or large screwdriver next to the rear of the square captive nut
and used a tapered piece of scrap wood as a shim to wedge it in place.

This prevented the captive nut from turinng in its deformed cage and I was then able to them remove the bolt.

I replaced the mangled new captive nut holder with a used one from Pick*N-Pull.

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78 W116 300SD 'Desert Rose' new as of 01/26/2014
79 W116 300SD 'Stormcloud' RIP 04/11/2022

Well I got the sheet metal off of the captive nut and out of the frame. There is still 3/8" of thread on the bolt sticking out of the nut. Pretty sure I can cut the nut with a diamond burr in my Fordom tool and/or a 1/4" cold chisel.

It's been soaking in penetrating oil all evening and that may help.

Thanks for the heads up on the replacement nuts. The one bolt that did come out will not completely thru the new nut. The nut is deformed on one end to hold it in the sheet metal "wings." Going to have to run a tap thru them to free things up.

Again, thank you for you input.

__________________
1988 300SE 83K+
1991 350SDL 283K+

They are lock nuts so should be hard to thread the bolt through. I wouldn't use a tap.

10-4. The kits are made by Febi if that makes any difference. The replacement bolts are to short and to small in diameter. I've e-mailed the vendor to see what the problem is.

Again, thank you.

__________________
1988 300SE 83K+
1991 350SDL 283K+

Got it!!! Had to open up the outside slot in the body and used a diamond point in a Dremmel motor to cut the square nut enough that I was able to use a cold chisel to split the nut.

Thanks again to those that responded.

__________________
1988 300SE 83K+
1991 350SDL 283K+

Seems like I once read a post by WHunter that he had a lot of problems
with those bearing bracket kits not working and finally went to just getting
the parts from the junkyard. Couldn't find the old post.



Jeff

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1984 300SD 300,000 miles--two tank WVO setup
2.88 diff & 500SEL anti-squat rear end

These aren't bearing brackets. More of a ball joint.

Kit seems to have quality fasteners included. The only fasteners not provided are the bolts that hold the "L" bracket to the frame. Those are still in good shape.

Now to get everything back together.

__________________
1988 300SE 83K+
1991 350SDL 283K+

Well the right side is done! That's almost like work. Got it back together and took it for a short spin. Left side sounds, no clunking when I brake. I'm going to replace it anyway.

Thanks again for your assistance.

__________________
1988 300SE 83K+
1991 350SDL 283K+