Escaped nut

Technical Area Body, Interior & Styling
1
  1. My model of MX-5 is: __NB
  2. I’m based near: __
  3. I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __ Escaped Nut

There’s an 3-sided frame under the rear of the car 4 bolts to the subframe and 2 to the floorpan. I had to remove it to replace the diff. Most of the bolts on the subframe sheared off and had to be replaced. The two on the chasis/floor came out ok ish.

Putting one of the bolta back in to the floor, the captive nut INSIDE the car came away. Which meant I can neither tighten or loosen the bolt.
How do I get to that escaped nut? It seems to be possibly behind the passanger seat bulkhead, but maybe not as far as the boot cavity. Under the softop area maybe.

The only other thing I can think of is to drill a couple of holes and try to re-weld the nut through the hole. But that seems a tad risky re-fire hazard.

2

If you cut a strategically placed hole in the rear bulkhead you can get a socket onto the nut through that. You’ll have to make your best guess/measurement as to the position of the hole.

3

There are a couple of nuts inside, near where the drain hoses exit; maybe it’s those you need to get to? If so, you can reach them by removing the bolts securing the seatbelts and pulling out the plastic box they sit in. There is a large void behind them.

P.s. I’m assuming the NB is similar to the NC here.

4

NB is quite different to the NC there, and while there is a large-ish access hole, the nuts in question are next to the transmission tunnel, completely inside the structure of the car. Cutting a hole is the only way to access them, unfortunately.

5

Thx for that info. Will save me some time faffimg for nothing

6

Not sure if you’ve resolved this yet, but I came across a picture of the nut from the inside in a video of someone working on a very rusty NB where they had cut away the rear bulkhead.

Visible for a few seconds from 8:05 (the rusty one, slightly right of the middle of the screen) :

(Remember, there’s always someone worse off! :grimacing: )

7

■■■. I used to have a pair of jeans like that back in the day. More patch than jeans !

No not sorted yet. I’m going to try to weld the nut through a drill hole or two. But will have to wait till I get her up on ramps and clear the area of waxoyl and get a new fire extinguisher !