Camber bolts don’t lock, keep spinning

[SureshR]

Hi, this happened some 40-50k km before in a now 150k kilometer run Ford Endeavour (think Ranger but with a SUV body; sold in Australia as the Everest), and I replaced the camber bolts then.

When aligning, the front and rear camber bolts on the front LH as well as RH seem to have an issue where they just keep rotating and don’t lock into place. According to the alignment tech, there is adequate thread on the bolts. What should I be looking to change, that oval disc the bolt rests on?

(The two horizontal metal strips / shims in the pic were added as a temporary measure to stabilise the bolt from rotating, the last time I ran into this issue)

 

[Johnny248]

How are you tightening it? I've seen this with some other vehicles, and sometimes an impact isn't enough. Long bar ratchet to really get them down.

 

[SureshR]

How are you tightening it? I've seen this with some other vehicles, and sometimes an impact isn't enough. Long bar ratchet to really get them down.

That was tried. There’s a point where it should lock into place - it doesn’t

 

[D60]

This is common in Frontier land with the cheap camber bolts that rely on a couple flats to keep the bolt fixed in the eccentric.

Better bolts are one-piece or have the eccentric somehow fixed to the bolt. Obviously, I'd just tack weld it.

But is this your problem?? Or are you having actual thread problems? At the risk of stating the obvious, if it keeps spinning, it's stripped, Cletus!!

 

[Johnny248]

This is common in Frontier land with the cheap camber bolts that rely on a couple flats to keep the bolt fixed in the eccentric.

Better bolts are one-piece or have the eccentric somehow fixed to the bolt. Obviously, I'd just tack weld it.

But is this your problem?? Or are you having actual thread problems? At the risk of stating the obvious, if it keeps spinning, it's stripped, Cletus!!

Usually the OEM will have the eccentric welded/one piece. The aftermarket ones slide over and can wallow out the D. Some of those factory bolts are extremely expensive though

 

[D60]

Usually the OEM will have the eccentric welded/one piece. The aftermarket ones slide over and can wallow out the D. Some of those factory bolts are extremely expensive though

I have no idea on the OP's application -- which, of course, would be considered "gray market" if it existed here in the States.

But, for a Frontier, they are....wait for it.... $30
https://www.roughcountry.com/product/nissan-cam-bolts-1004

And if you zoom in.....you see tack welds as previously suggested. Simple fix. If anyone is utilizing a "shop" that doesn't have a basic wire feed machine, you should find a different shop. Sorry, not sorry.

 

[SureshR]

This is common in Frontier land with the cheap camber bolts that rely on a couple flats to keep the bolt fixed in the eccentric.

Better bolts are one-piece or have the eccentric somehow fixed to the bolt. Obviously, I'd just tack weld it.

But is this your problem?? Or are you having actual thread problems? At the risk of stating the obvious, if it keeps spinning, it's stripped, Cletus!!

The flats and tack welded strips that I added are definitely a feature here. This is a solid one piece bolt with an oval metal washer, stock Ford OEM.

Something like this.

The thread is fine .. for now when caught early. When I found out the last time around the thread was pretty much stripped after several times that my alignment (toe) got out of whack by 5k km, so I replaced the bolts.

Before that I’d added the tack welds to see if they’d sort out the issue .. wasn’t a long term fix. Ended up that replacing the bolts was the only solution. And then the new bolts lasted around 40-50k km (let’s say 30 odd thousand miles) before they’ve started to slip. Not good, even for a 2.4 ton kerb weight midsized SUV.

 

[SureshR]

So is there a fix beyond the tack welds? I see the flats on either side are slightly bent out of shape, possibly an artefact of when I ill advisedly upsized to 285/60R18 instead of the stock 265/60R18. Bad idea, it caused premature suspension wear as well that cost me $$ to fix.

 

[SureshR]

So is there a fix beyond the tack welds? I see the flats on either side are slightly bent out of shape, possibly an artefact of when I ill advisedly upsized to 285/60R18 instead of the stock 265/60R18. Bad idea, it caused premature suspension wear as well that cost me $$ to fix.

Did some much beefier welding so the strip stays in place and doesn't bend after 40-50k km. Doesn't look as pretty, but hey the eccentric bolts don't spin any longer and lock into place just fine.