Hi Michael,
Certainly there’s heaps of good information from Doug who has obviously suffered a lot of pain in the past to be able to compile such advice! Meanwhile, in relation to the 8 bolts themselves that were changed a few years ago, please make sure they are high tensile bolts. Some years ago a track day ended badly for me when talent, adhesion and options all ran out at the same time, and I parked the car backwards into a wall at warp speed. The inertia of my 90kg body snapped the bolts of my seat, so I flew around the interior of the car. My helmet took 6 blows and came apart, but at least protected my head in the process. I was luck to get away with just concussion and severe whiplash. On investigation later, it turned out that the person who fitted the racing seat in the car had used low tensile bolts, which just sheared in the impact!
Grahame
OK – I believe you’re correct – the nut dropped out of sight.
Now THAT is really different.
What you may have to do is choose between two tactics: leave it as is; or, slip a fastener into the blind hole.
I know they make such a thing. It expands like a wall board screw . . . drill a hole in the wall, slip the gizmo that looks like a rocket thru the hole and tighten. As you tighten, wings are pulled up and voile a blind holder.
Ah hah – here are some examples – this is your ticket . . .
https://www.amazon.com/Nuts-Blind-Holes/s?k=Nuts+for+Blind+Holes
maybe
keep me posted
and good luck
Doug
(I just love cars &%^*%^$&%^(&^? .. . still have not tackled why my fuel pump cuts out – but I will.)
All 8 bolts have been changed a few years ago. They all look excellent. The bolt goes through the rail as it should but does not catch on anything at all. It’s just hanging there through the floor. Maybe the nut that is supposed to screw into is not there anymore. That’s the feeling I had. After 3 hours of finishing the interior, I was ready to go back home and gave up on it quickly. I have to go back tomorrow………
Michael Savard (1981 308 GTSi)
Well congrats Michael – good job.
Now – How to Fix a loose seat rail 8mm bolt? Jokingly - turn it: 'righty - tighty.' Ah ah
But I think I know what you’re intimating. It IS tight but still loose. Using that premise as a jump off point lets do this ….
- Do you have the right bolt? Not a silly question. I believe you have an 8 mm socket cap screw with a shoulder and threads. So first – we need to know how thick is the material the bolt is clamping? If the seat rail thickness plus the floor thickness are less than the shoulder of the bolt – the bolt shoulder torqued down is tight to the nut and your supposed clamped material offers no resistance to bolt movement – ergo ‘completely loose bolt.’
- Secondly – go to #5 below. However, if you want to read all this stuff and try it another way – start here -à
- Make sure the bolt treads are clear to the top or at least up to the shoulder. If you have set of taps and dies –
- Get a nut the same size as the bolt (otherwise this would be a stupid suggestion) and see if the nut in your hand will go all the way up to the shoulder. It doesn’t? you found a problem – maybe not THE problem but you’re on your way. Progress to c.
- get a die the thread size of the bolt (see caveat in (b)) and chase the threads up to the shoulder. No tap and die set? Not even from JC Whitney?
- Well then use a needle file or something and clean up the threads a bit and repeat (b) until the nut goes all the way to the shoulder.
- Did that fix the problem? Yes – hooray. No – go to (f)
- Drat. OK – now plumb the depth of the hole in the floor. Is it longer than the bolt threads? If not – something is preventing the bolt from going through the nut or it hitting something on the floor frame or some slag from a weld job. After all – Guido the welder is not buying THIS car.
- If you have a tap and die set – now get a tap the bolt size and chase the threads of the nut. WARNING – IF it gets TOO TOUGH I would advise NOT forcing it. There could be a spot of nasty rust or weld (how do think these things are held in? Ferrari anti-gravity grease?) AND if you snap you triple hardened steel tap made out of mixture of DeBeers reject diamonds and carbon steel it will give you NO joy to fix THAT problem.
- So that’s top to bottom fastener check.
- If the bolt shoulder is too long – that makes, for what ever reasons, your threaded area too long too. The fix there – make the bolt shorter.
- Slip a couple of nuts on the bolt to chase the grinding flashing off your bolt and give you a good grip while grinding.
- Grind down the bolt two threads at a time and put a nice chamfer on your new end – try it – fits? Hooray. Doesn’t – back to the grinder and so forth.
- Depending on how much your seat bolt and nut distance is off – get a few thick washers. Me? I used two (front and back bolts to lessen seat rack twist) thick head washer bolts from a 1977 Plymouth Arrow engine I overhauled in 1984. To get a good seat for the washer – get a 1 inch diameter flat faced wood drill with a point used with an electric drill and clean out the fiber glass floor material. Put your washer in there and see if you get the results you are looking for.
- DOUBLE WARNING – what EVER you do – do not force the bolt into the nut to the extent that force snaps off the nut under the floor AND your seat rail. The fix for THAT is: Next Chapter titled “When the Mighty Michael rebuilds the right side of his car.”
Onward Michael
Doug
Finally finished the interior with heat/sound shield. Now I have to wait at least 3 months to ‘feel’ the results.
Putting back my passenger seat, I noticed (I saw that when I took all of the bolts out in december) the front left bolt is completely loose. I know it’s been like this for a year or two. No problem so far. But is there a way to fix that ?
Michael Savard (1981 308 GTSi)
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