Broken front bottom shock mount-97 ranger
 

97 xlt 4x4 xcab, 185k miles, recently bought new tires and decided i should put on new shocks too, rears went on ok over the weekend, even with the tightness and rust on bolts, however when i went to loosen passenger side bottom front shock bolt, the nut was obviously rusted solid to the stud and sheared right off where threaded section meets smooth section of stud. great. i guess i should've soaked with aerokroil, but i thought i'd give it a try without as it didn't look that bad. so now what to do? the shock is still able to be on the remaining stud and in fact i left it on there and put a 3-4" ss hose clamp around radius arm and shock mount to hold it on temporarily, since it doesn't appear there are much lateral forces there, and i'm only doing highway driving, and i tested it by pulling the bottom mount off and the shock angle holds it tight to the radius arm and not in the tires way at all if it would fail. looking at the back of the stud, it looked like the stud might be pressed in the radius arm, so i banged the crap out of the front with a 4lb sledge and it didn't move. some searching on the web says this is tacked/welded on the radius arm somehow? how do i go about getting this off? my plan was to knock that out and use the appropriate sized grade 8 bolts/washers in its place and/or stop by azone on way home today to pick up pn 31001 motormite shock bolt to use, although i'd still need to knock that stud out somehow? there was also a mention from one guy saying ford might have a repair kit for this so i'll stop at dealer on way home today too. any suggestions of what to do here? i'm obviously going to be soaking the drivers side well with kroil before attempting it. tia.

chad

Yep, happened to my 94. I drilled a hole in the center of the shock bold, then tapped it, and put a bolt in it with a washer on it. But I had seen it happen at work, and they just ground the old stud off, and I think they were able to get a replacement one from a the help section at the parts store, and I believe it bolts on.

I had the EXACT thing happen to me, except at about 155k. I used some heat from a torch and beat it out the back side from the front. I happened to have a hand full of miscelaneous shanked grade 8 bolts laying around to replace it with that's work for the shock mount. So after a little grinding and wire wheeling to prep the surface I put the bolt in the hole and used square tubing for spacing to hold itself in place with the nut. Welded both the back and front side for strength, put a washer between the radius arm and shock mount. Back in business!

Don't be afraid of the flame wrench on rusted components, even using keyboard duster
held upside down or crc freeze off on the inner piece and heat on the outer piece will
usually get things off without too much work. You could have a bolt welded to what is left of the stud and then grind the sloppy part of the weld down.

same thing happened to me.. I got a grade 8 bolt... 12,000 miles later still going well.. cost about $20 for the drill bit to drill the whole and the bolt, washers, and nut. good luck.

Same thing happened to me, stud broke right off. It did appear tackwelded in. Used heat then punched the plug out like Benaghetto. Only difference was went to the parts store and they sold a replacement stud kit for just such situations, bolted that in. I got it at Advance Auto though I suspect others have it. It fit perfect. It wasn't in their internet catalog but was on the rack with the miscellaneous hardware, window cranks, door handles and the like.

ok, thanks for the replies so far. here's some issues:

first, as to removing the welded stud, if you look at the pic below of the stud at rangerstation.com tech library writeup for lower shock mount replacement, there is a "button" at the backside of the stud, which is visible at backside of radius arm and looks like the stud is only that big as rounded "button", however on the shock side of radius arm there is a 1/4" thick "spacer" between radius arm and shock, but it's the same radius/size as the shock rubber mount, aka much bigger than teh button on back. is this actually a washer or something from the factory that comes off separate (and must be rusted solid on mine) or is this the part that is welded? even though you guys mentioned it, stupid question, but this whole stud is removed by hitting on the shock side and it coming out the back of radius arm? just want to be sure of that. http://www.therangerstation.com/Maga...3/shock004.jpg

second, customstringer, you mention you used the autoparts store replacement stud. is this it? it is part 31001 from help section where you mentioned and i got it at advance the other day. if so, question on it, if you notice the section that would be between the radius arm and the shock itself, the attached spacer, it is 1/2" thick on 31001, however measuring the spacer on the truck now (mentioned in first paragraph) it is only 1/4" or less. won't this extra 1/4" extra offset of teh shock make a difference/cause problems?http://www.partsamerica.com/product_...or/661-001.jpg
i might get a chance to work on this this weekend, bad, cold pa weather right now, and only have unheated garage, plus ss hose clamp is holding up, heheh. i just want as much info/prep as i can ahead of time.

chad

It has been a while since I did the shock repair however as I recall the replacement stud had a metal flange on the back and no rubber bushings like what you have. It was in the help section. Sorry I can't be of more help. I don't know if they have another repair stud that is what I got or worse is if they discontinued it.

Same thing happened to my '94. I saoked them for a couple weeks and used heat, with no luck. The stud threads twisted off like a bottle top. I couldn't believe it. Looked like pot metal. I am in the process of changing out the radius arms. They were cheap enough. I guess thats the 20+ years of aircraft maintenance in me. I could have drilled out and put bolts in, but I just like to make it right.