Chicago1

You know how the cradle is held on my 4 bolts? It gets threaded into a insert that's in the frame. Well those came off and they cant be reused or tapped back in. Can I buy these and press them in? Thinking I may have to get bigger inserts

onspeed

Can either reapproximate the hole in the frame rail and weld in inserts like stock or you can weld a plate ontop of the old hole area and weld the insert onto the plate.

Chicago1

no welder car cant be moved at the moment. but found some threads they actually have a tool for this. I may just get a different insert if the hole is to big.

fmvette9

From the factory, the nutsert is a size M6 with a hex shape. I used a drill bit to make the hole in the frame round, and put in a size M8 nutsert.

hatewhatownsyou

Those are called swage nuts, self clinching nuts or pemserts and yes you can buy them. I think they require access to both sides tho



You can try rivet nuts, they crimped in from one side. You will just have to check your hole size

Chicago1

Thanks gents I will try and find some tomorrow on break. Didnt know the name of them either so that helped ALOT!

Patches

I have put a lot of nutserts/rivnuts in various areas of the frame and other areas of my C5. I bought a couple of boxes of different Standard sizes with installation tools. They are the cat's meow to install stuff when you only have access to one side of a mounting surface.

Pounder

I use that also, very useful !!!

Chicago1

I'm gonna have to order one of those!!!

I did fix it I went to ace and got whatever these things are called pictured below. I had to drill the factory insert holes slighter larger and inserted these. I guess they bind down or something so you can tighten whatever you need to. I did a couple laying down pull ups and that cradle support is solid!!!

vipmiller803

I had that problem before.

For future reference, you can actually buy those nut inserts. They do not require access from both sides or any puller tool as mentioned above.

The frame is actually not drilled a circular hole there, but rather a 6 point hole. All you do is insert nut and bolt with nothing attached. Tighten bolt to get the nut to crush in. Remove the bolt and go about your business. The frame holes can sometimes elongate though, so it isn't a fool proof plan unless you can get the frame to straighten out just the right way.

Something similar to this:
https://www.volvette.com/5CL010F.html

Part numbers and fuller story in post #16 of:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-question.html

Chicago1

Dang that's great to know. Thanks!!

Chicago1

Well my method/part didnt work. I took it out and hit a few spots and it ripped out again. Grrrrr.

Patches

Shant, I have an extra tool and inserts I can throw in the mail if you get desperate.

Chicago1

Thanks Ed, I will let you know I think I may just tact weld it. We shall see because I think the hole may be to big for the stock inserts.

fmvette9

It's simple to repair. You need a size M8 nutsert also called riv-nut, as pictured in Patches reply above, available from Fastenal or McMaster Carr. The factory size is an M6, but you need to go up a size since the frame hole is enlarged. You should use the suggested drill bit size for the M8 to make the frame hole nice and round. You can construct a very simple but effective tool to install the nutsert with a M8 bolt, couple of nuts, lock washer, and a washer.

Google "how to install nutsert" and you will find directions on constructing the tool.

Chicago1

Thanks we have a Fastenal here in town. Ill head over there tommorow Never welded so sounded interesting to me to do...lol probably not a good idea..

fmvette9

I will attempt to describe the install tool so you can buy the parts while you are at the store. From the factory, there is a hex hole which prevents the nutsert from rotating when it is installed. You will be buying a round one, since the hex shape is destroyed, and using a drill bit to make the correct round hole for the M8 nutsert.

Take a long M8 bolt and screw a nut to the bottom, followed by a flat washer, M8 or M10 nut with the threads drilled out so it freewheels on the bolt, a star washer, and then screw on the nutsert. Put the head of the bolt in a vise, and holding the nutsert tighten the lower nut. This compresses the star washer between the freewheeling nut and flange of the nutsert, locking them together. By holding the freewheeling nut with a wrench, the nutsert will not rotate when installing (serving the purpose of the hex hole). Insert the nutsert in the frame, and hold the freewheeling nut and the bolt constant, turn the bottom nut. This will pull the bolt straight down, expanding the base of the nutsert against the inside of the frame. It does take three hands, but works wonderful.

Buy two nutserts, so you can compress one nutsert outside of the car to understand how it works. Sounds complicated, but once you see how it works, very simple.

When this happened to me, I partially expanded a factory M6 outside of the car enough so I could fully expand it in the frame even though the hole had enlarged. 7 years later the M6 nutsert metal fatigued the frame and fell out. The hole in the frame was so big, I had to go to an M12 nutsert. If I had used an M8 the first time it happened, it would have not fatigued the frame.