must be good luck, right?

["Tony Sims" <simstony@domain.elided>]

Had something odd happen tonight, have decided it must be good luck disguised
as a PITA.  The replacement for the crossbar I damaged arrived from Alfa
Performance Center today, so I headed out to the garage to get the left front
suspension reassembled.  Bolted up wishbone arms to the crossbar, bolted in
the new lower ball joint, torqued it all together, no problems or quirks.

Crawled under the car and started bolting the a-arm to the cross member.  Got
all 4 bolts in the crossbar, got the nylock nuts all started, and snugged them
up.  There's no torque spec in my Haynes book for these, but 60 lbs/ft is in
the ballpark for the other suspension attachments so that's what I used a few
days ago when I installed the right side.  Took all 4 bolts to 50 lbs/ft, then
set the wrench to 60 and started around again.  First nut wasn't clicking the
wrench after a couple turns, so I just moved to the second one.  Same thing
happens.  I reach across the car and slip the torque wrench on one of the
right side nuts and give a tug -- "click".  Hmmm...

Put the wrench back on the first nut and give it a couple more turns -- and I
feel the resistance drop off -- "%$#!".  Grab the ratchet and back off the
nut, finding all threads from the nut now lodged in the bolt.  Inside of the
nut is smooth like buttah.  Bolt is unscathed.  Curious now about other nuts,
so I start trying to torque them.  The other 3 are headed the same way, so I
stop before they strip.  Reach across under the car, slip the wrench on
another of the right side nuts and tug -- "click".

My diagnosis -- this car has been wrecked a time or two in its life.  During
the repairs from one of these incidents, someone must have over tightened all
4 of these nuts, weakening the threads enough that they failed when I tried to
take them past 50 lbs/ft.  I am making the assumption that 60 lbs/ft is not
over tightening, but for 10 X 1.25 hardware that doesn't seem excessive.  If
anyone has a reference with torque specs I'd be grateful.

What's the good luck part? Well, they failed while I was installing them, not
while I was driving!

Cheers,
Tony
74 GTV 2000
70 2800Cs
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