Twisted off the height adjustment bolt

I twisted off the height adjustment bolt while trying to increase the ride height of my 74 Challenger. Any advice on fixing this would be appreciated.

I have just had the front end aligned and the tech had lowered the front end from where it was. The left front tire was rubbing on the fender on a left turn. I curled the inner fender lip and molding to gain clearance, but that was not enough. I raised the left side about a quarter of an inch and tried to raise the right side, but the adjusting bolt twisted off clean.

Not that it matters now, but did you try to turn it with the car on the ground, or the weight off of that corner?


You'll need to get the threaded key and rest of the bolt out of the control arm, which could be "fun".

Replacement bolts exist.

http://www.manciniracing.com/tobaradabebo.html

I usually antisieze the threads and put a big dab on the ball and socket portion when building my lowers so that making the adjustments on loaded suspensions doesn't end up like this.

Get an old (or new) toothbrush and your favorite spray cleaner/degreaser and clean/brush out the thread of the adjuster bolt too. It is amazing how much road grime get deep down into the fine threads of that bolt. IMHO that is what freezes up the adjuster bolt in other than snow/salt corrosion country.
After cleaning out the threads like this I have unscrewed that bolt by hand in some, not all, junkyard cars.

Worst case you can raise the front end and support with jack stands and cut the adjuster in half with a grinder and disk. Then you can lift the threaded nut/plate out of the lower control arm and try and get the rest of the bolt out of it if you want.

It is a lot easier to just by a new one of those when you get the new bolt.

As a temporary quick fix, I was able to weld a nut on the old bolt as there was about an inch of it left below the "nut" (for lack of knowing the proper term)in the control arm. That allowed me to raise the front enough to keep the fender off the tire.

I have about 24 1/2 inches from the floor to the bottom of the wheel well trim. Any one care to share their fender height on an e-body?

Thanks for the link to Mancini, I looked there earlier, but I didn't find anything then.

Never adjust these with weight on them, lift the car.

It is advised to take your ride height measurements from the LCA pin instead of the body panels. Obviously this would be done from the front of the k frame.

I always do it with weight on the tires, but loosen the lower control arm shaft nuts first!
Then after bouncing the car and getting the measurement I want, torque the nuts.
And yes, measure from the shaft to the ground.

Why is it no one can do it according the the FSM?

Ugh, that is no fun. Now you'll get a PhD in lower control arm R&R! Might be a little bit tricky getting everything apart if you can't release the tension on the torsion bar. Be careful is all I can say, there is a lot of energy stored up in that bar. If you cut the bar under load it could snap pretty hard. If you pop the ball joint with the bar loaded it could also come apart on you pretty fast. If you get the car up in the air and let the suspension hang down you will take most of the load off. Then you should be able to remove the knuckle and brake strut and knock the LCA forward off of the bar. Once you have the LCA off you should be able to take it to a machine shop and have them drill the bolt out. If the bolt is snapped off clean with the pivot then the whole assembly might just fall out and you can replace it and reassemble. Good luck and I'm sure you won't make that mistake again!

If you know someone who is good with a cutting torch you could put the car on jack stands and torch the adjuster bolt and block out of the lower control arm.