Grr downpipe fitting

[emery1990]

For the sake of my life, am i right in thinking i put my axle stands on the wishbones, at the moment thwere on the subframe but got to be moved obviously to remove the subframe, or are the wishbones connected to the subframe, looks like one bolt is?

[Ben Lessani]

The rear of the wishbone is connected to the subframe, if you are removing the rear subframe - you cannot support the weight of the car on it.

Saying that, I would never use a wishbone as a support point anyway. I've got a few jacks and lots of axel stands, so depending on what you are doing, you can just support the weight on a jack and put an axel stand under the sill *just in case*. It depends on how much time you are going to spend under the car and what access you need.

When I removed the front wishbone, I found the best bet is to pop a couple of stands under the chassis leg mid-point, use blocks of wood to spread the weight.




Or support it at the chassis leg front:

[emery1990]

Ok thanks, ive only got two axle stands and two jacks, so may get some more stands before i do it.

[Ben Lessani]

You should be fine with 2x jacks and 2x stands.

[emery1990]

Ive know it got it jacked up, looking at it, do i have to support the engine as the rear mount connects onto this doesnt it, and also is that big 21mm? bolt the bolt which sometimes spins and spins and you have to cut the floor out to get to it? all the bolts ive tried to undo (the small 13mm bolts) have just spun and spun, am i supposed to be able to get something to hold the on top the frame still, or am i just best to chisel the heads off, will have to remove both wishbones as well to take out the subframe.

Tried looking everwhere to see what was involved but cant find nothing.

[emery1990]

Just read that evverything attached to it needs to be taken off ( bit obvious really  ) im going to get the g60 rear engine mount aswell whilts im in that area. Just not sure on what to do with these spinning nuts, if i snap a bolt and need to cut the floor plan i may push it off a cliff!!

[clipperjay]

So the nut end is in the chassis floor plan?
Or can you see the nut?

[emery1990]

Just saying about the floor plan as if i sheer the bolts holding the subframe up ill have to cut the floor plan and weld something on to that is what ive read up. or is that the big wishbone nut.

All i can see is the bolt head and that's what im putting my ratchet onto, but its just spinning and i can feel on the otherside that theres something spinning with it, but doesnt feel like a fat nut or anything.

All i want to do is put my downpipe on !!! 

[clipperjay]

Right so on the floor plan there must have been a welded nut thats basically sheered off the floor itself?
TBH if that has happened and there is noway of getting to it you would need to cut a piece off weld a new retaining nut in the same place so you can do a nut up.
I think you could put enough force on the thread part and get friction to undo it, but still it doesn't solve how you would re bolt up the new bolt and nut. I'm sure there is a simple way of getting to something like that? I've never in all my years ever fecked up a bolt on a golf like the way you have described!
Can you give me a piucture of this bolt and position?

 

[Ben Lessani]

Ive know it got it jacked up, looking at it, do i have to support the engine as the rear mount connects onto this doesnt it,

Yes, if you jack and support in the same places I have (below), you'll be fine. You have to support the car body, and the subframe itself - so that you can lower it down gently to get the access you need - in my pic, I'm just supporting the rear of the subframe (because I removed the wishbone bolt), but if you are dropping the whole thing you'll need to support it more centrally on both sides and remove the front engine mount support.



There is two captive nuts you could have broke off ... neither are fun to fix!

Rear subframe, front captive nut repair - http://www.clubgti.com/forum/showthread.php?t=159025
Rear subframe, rear captive nut repair - http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=119517.0