2001 Winne Journey - Bolts Not Tightened

[mmking1967]

Am member of FCOC, but cannot find service phone number. On road and noticed 3 bolts that are not near to touching bottom out. THese are seen behind rear wheels on my coach. Want to see why and if I should tighten myself.

[desertdeals69]

Exactly where are these bolts and what are they supposed to hold?

[mmking1967]

Thanks for reply. Facing rear dual, I see a stud to the left front of the tire and right rear of tire coming out of the frame. Looks about 3/4 size and have big square dock washers. Neither nut is touching up to the frame/washer. The other side of coach is tight. Is his an alignment thing or just a frame bolt not holding body on?/

Thanks

[desertdeals69]

If nothing is being held by the bolt I would just tighten the bolt if loose or maybe there is not any more threads and the bolt is tight.

[wolfe10]

What is attached to the bolts? If nothing, look on the other side. It may be that your coach builder did not use all the chassis-supplied fasteners. Or it could be.......

Post a photo and we can probably be a lot more help.

[mmking1967]

Update on bolts - Gaffney advises that the heads of these bolts are spot welded by Winnebago. Since I see no thread changes, that suggests that the welds were broken during assembly and there is no access to the heads at this time. The amount of bolt showing suggest that the bolt head not only is loose, but also has pulled through from the top of some hidden beam to the bottom of that same beam.

My plan is to either loosen the nut or cut it off, then grip bolt from bottom and tighten as much as possible. My hope is that the aluminum beam will not allow head to pull completely out.

May be a while, as I will take my time. Have made last use of RV for the winter. I am in Central Florida and have daily access to my unit.

Thank All for your inputs.

[mmking1967]

OOps the image came across rotated. The bolt is ABOVE the tire.

[dickandlois]

If There is an aluminum rail or beam above the fender well and the well is steel, you need to use stainless steel bolts. Try to isolate the two dissembler materials as they react with each other and this cases an electrolysis reaction that degrades the bolts and the material. Over time this degrades them both and salt accelerates the reaction.

Always wondered why coach manufactures did not add a PVC barrier between them and use stainless steel bolts and rivets. AH yes that thing called add on cost to do it. !!!

Rich.

[mmking1967]

Rich,

I am stuck with using the same bolts, just have to figure out how to tighten a bolt without access to it's head; thereby my plan of degrading enough of the bottom of the bolt to grip and tighten. There currently is so little amount of threading below the nut that no grip is possible(on either bolt). Here I am considering cutting the frozen nut and proceed from that situation.

I will take your advise and obtain some teflon material to make washers for the contact point.

Thanks

Marvin

[dickandlois]

Marvin, interesting challenge.

Could you give me the length of the gap between the wash / nut combination and the frame Rail.

Think you might be able to grip the exposed bolt with a pair of vice grips to hold the bolt so you could use a cutoff wheel and a Dremel Tool to cut two slots in the nut and washer so you could then remove the nut in 2 half's. Being very careful so to limit damage to the bolt threads. Then with the proper sized die cut new threads on the exposed bolt to the best of ones ability. I have used a 6 point deep well socket to turn a die down on the threads, then place washers on the section you can not thread. One might be able to use some JB Weld to hold (lock) the washers to the bolt keep the threads clean, then tighten the nut. if it tightens down enough to cause the hidden bolt head to grip the back side of the frame rail,one should be able to torque it down enough to keep it tight.

This is a slow process,but it works.

To get enough room to work, removing the tire might be necessary. This requires the coach to be parked on a level surface, with a good concrete base and 2 good Jake Stands under the axle. 6 ton truck stands at least. Check the front axle wight on your coach and use bigger stands if needed. The tires are heavy to remove and handle !!!!

Think ahead on how your going to approach the problem, walk away and then look and think some more. Only going to get one shot at getting a good fix on this one from the information you have posted.

Rich.

[mmking1967]

Rich,

Very good technique suggestions. I am first checking that I have the correct die before I cut the nuts off.

Thanks again,

Marvin