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240 Tailgate Strut Pin Loose

I may be wrong but I don't think there is anything "Volvo" about that ball stud. There are many cars that use the same type of tailgate lift shocks that clamp on to a ball stud. Napa, AutoZone, etc?????
 
I may be wrong but I don't think there is anything "Volvo" about that ball stud. There are many cars that use the same type of tailgate lift shocks that clamp on to a ball stud. Napa, AutoZone, etc?????

Perhaps, but I don't want to assume anything. Maybe I'll have to bring a lift support with me to one of those stores but quick search shows Napa not having the correct threads on any of them and nothing stating the ball sizes. Until I figure something else out I have I have another thread in the wanted section and an OE Volvo unit on the way. :) It's not worth spending a lot of time cross-referencing or making something else work.
 
The ball size is determined by the strut socket. Might try cross reference on that. I suspect that a whole lot of the struts are the same dimentions.

WANTED is your easy solution.
 
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Can't you pry out with a small flat head screwdriver to put tension on the nut, then zip it in with battery powered driver?

Maybe if the threads weren't messed up. I tried removing it that way before I cut it off with the death wheel, but it got stuck. If the strut was able to pop four welds and skip two teeth on the nut then I wouldn't imagine an uncaptured nut lasting very long.
 
I actually can't see the threads surviving this kind of failure at all. If the threads were fine the stud would still be in place, and nobody would ever know that the welds popped. Thinking about it some more I could see how Kens suggestion of taping a couple wrenches together could work for reassembly, but that would be super tough. As of now I think it would actually be easier and more sustainable to drill the hole bigger and weld a new nut from the outside. If you keep the repair area local enough, nobody will ever be able to tell the difference.
 
I got a ball stud in the mail yesterday. Thanks Roy!

I didn't think much about it until now, but there isn't a very tall hex on that ball stud. Rounding it off will be pretty easy if I put a lot of torque to it. I'm thinking red loctite is going to be my friend here. Any objections?
 
The Camaro made it home safely from the dyno, so I now have four vehicles which I can get in and drive at any given moment. :cool: Now I feel like I can start dealing with these little problems again.

Allie took my C30 to work today, so that I could deal with this. Getting groceries into the house yesterday really sucked!

First I prepped the area for welding, grinding, and painting. A Harbor Freight fire blanket worked well here. Also thanks for the 6' ladder trick! It does in fact fit perfectly.
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Then I knocked the galvanization off the nut and washer for welding.
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Yes, it's ugly, but only we are going to see it! I also added an extra washer because I noticed that the ball stud has a pretty long shank before it's threads start. This is due to the thick metal used on the D-pillar.
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I enlarged the hole using a step bit. An unintentional benefit of the step bit was the chamfer it created which will make welding a lot easier.
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I wanted to make the hole just barely too small so that the washers would be a press fit. The D-pillar is super thick, so deforming it will not be very easy. You just need to make sure that you go slow with the step bit, check the hole size often, and grind the welds on the nut so that the washers remain round. To make it even easier, I used a bolt as a handle for keeping the nut straight while I hammered it in. A jam nut would have been wise in order to lower the risk of damaging the threads, but I didn't have an issue.

I should also add that I sprayed the nut and washers with weld-through primer before pounding it home. This was done with hopes that it doesn't rust later.
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Ready to weld
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As always with body work, go slow. Again, this is thick steel, but you don't want things to warp. I only made two small tacks before re-preparing the metal blowing it off with compressed air. You don't want to continue welding until everything is cooled down a bit.
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Ew.
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A couple filler welds and some grinding later, I'm calling it "good enough". For tight areas like this, I use a flap disk on my dremel tool to grind the welds down. I was happy with the quick results. Afterward, I needed to clean a little bit of slag out of the threads with a pick. A thread chaser was then used after that.
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Why am I happy when there are still little pores? Because sandable primer is my friend. Automotivetouchup.com supplied me with this, matching base coat, and clear in rattle cans. After two coats of each and a little sanding between primers, I'm thrilled with the results!
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I don't want this sucker coming out again.
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It sits nice and flat. Anything less than flat is going to create risk of failure.
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After some vacuuming it's like nothing ever happened. :cool:
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:-D Nicely repaired! Keep the wagon train rolling.

Thanks! We finally trust it to take us on a long trip through the heat this weekend, so we're either going to find out what still sucks or have a great time. :lol:

Maybe toward the end of the summer I'll figure out what's wrong with the heated seats. The wiring under the seat is all cobbled up, and the switch lights don't come on. That's fairly low on the list right now though.
 
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