99 T & C, rear shocks, mounting bolts.

Anyone know what the thread is on the mounting bolts for the rear
shocks on a 99 T & C.

it seems to be 12mm but I don't know the pitch. Took the old shocks
off and two of the four bolts are not usable. One was bent (appears
the bottom of the shock hit something) and another was galled. Dealer
didn't have in stock nor did any of the auto parts stores in the area.
Went to a nut and bolt store and got two but they don't fit. Trying
to figure if the threads are stretched or if they gave me the wrong
pitch thread. Probably the latter.

Also, the bolts are threaded all the way with a pilot pin on the end
and a capured washer. Seems that they should have a shoulder.

 

Those are high strength bolts, if you do not use the correct ones you could
have problems. Possibly breaking off as you drive the vehicle. It would take
one day to order the correct ones from the dealer. My suggestion to you,
Order from the dealer

Glenn Beasley
Chrysler Tech

 

Good advice, that's what I'll do.

Thanks
Frank

 

We have a local small hardware store here that has a nice selection of
metric, including Grade 8 bolts. Unfortunately stores like that seem to be
disappearing, I've gone to many larger ones who's fastner section could have
been
put in a tin can, or they have a huge selection of English bolting hardware
and practically nothing in metric.

You can also get the correct bolting hardware from a u-pullit wrecking yard.

Ted

 

May have to end up doing that. Took what I still consider to be good
advise and ordered from my dealer. told me have them in the morning.
next morning no bolts and after three calls they said it appeared that
the feeding distributor was out of stock. Ordered from Detroit,
special overnight delivery. Next day no bolts and they can't even
tell me when. Say they have tracking number that doesn't work. say
they have to call the Detroit source but waited to late in the day to
do so.

They won't ever call me. I have to call them to get them to check and
when they do they can't tell me anything. Just that they are not
here.

I've never heard of ordering something shipped UPS or Fed Ex and not
being able to track the shipment.

So I've been on jack stands for three days and will be for this
weekend and then probably for another day or so due to Katrina. All
for the want of two high strength shock mount bolts.

You would think that dealers would stock a couple of these things.
My experience of removing four and finding two not usable can't be an
isolated case. Particularly since the lower shock mount is
unprotected from hitting something (which must have happend to the
bent bolt based on the scaring on the bottom of the shock) and that
the mount design is cantilever rather than yoke.

Well that is enough ranting. No u-pullits in my area. they say
liability issue. However, I have a friend who owns a salvage yard,
will contact him on Monday if not closed because of Katrina.

Frank

 

Most dealers do stock those bolts, have you asked them to check other
dealers or make calls your self?

 

They told me the checked with all the dealers that are close. Closest
is about fifty miles. If they don't come Monday morning, I'll call
myself.

Hey I'm still glad I took your advice to hold out for the OEM part.
This cantilever design must put a lot of stress on these bolts.

Frank

 

I'll probably get in trouble for saying this but I would guess that
somewhere
in the service department is a tin can full of miscellaneous bolts, and when
something like this happens to one of the dealers customers, they fish
around
in that can and see if there's a spare shock bolt in there.

If not, and they have to order bolts, they order 2 of them and replace both
bolts on the customer's vehicle, even if one side is still good, then the
old
good bolt goes into the can for the next time.

If your bolts aren't there Monday you might ask very nicely if they could
see if they have a couple used bolts in a dark corner that might work.

I've had the same experience with dealer parts guys when ordering small
items like this. My guess is that your 2 bolts were not ordered by the
distributor because the distributor would take a loss on the shipping for
such a small order. Most likely the distributor makes one or two orders
a week of all the miscellaneous bullshit small and cheap items, and has them
shipped from the factory in one shipment to save shipping. So the
distributor
is just giving your dealer the runaround, and since your dealer isn't
getting
the money for the in-and-out charge, and doesen't have one of their
service bays tied up just peeing money away waiting for a nickel-and-dime
item, they aren't igniting a bonfire under the distributor to quit the crap
and get them the damn bolts now.

Unfortunately, this is SOP when you do your own work. It's important
to keep in mind that if the only time you go into the dealer parts
department
is to order small items that simply cannot be got elsewhere - for example
I'll bet money you didn't buy your shocks from them - and you spend
your large parts dollars at auto parts stores and wrecking yards, that
if they don't have your part and are out of stock, your order is put on the
very bottom of the priority list.

I'm not advising here that you do all your purchasing at the dealer in order
to change this. The fact of the matter is that even if you do, unless your
coming in weekly to buy parts, (like if you own a repair shop) they aren't
going to remember you from Adam and you still won't get any special
treatment.
Of course, if you ordered several hundred bucks worth of parts and these
bolts were in that order, you would have some leverage with the parts
guys for the moment.

But over the long term, dealer parts counters simply aren't setup to sell to
DIYers. While most dealer parts guys are more than willing to meet you
halfway, the parts counters only stock a sliver of the vast inventory of
spare
parts that the automakers themselves have to stock. So, just about
everything
that isn't a commonly replaced item has to be shipped in, and half of that
has to be shipped in from the one single warehouse in the country that
has everything.

With your bolts, most likely in most larger cities the repair shops are
getting replacements from a hardware store that carries real hardware
for the professional, not the Home Depot style tiny selection of bolts
manufactured out of melted down potmetal that you can bend with
your fingers. So there's just not a lot of call for them. I would guess
that the distributor that the dealer uses wasn't out of stock on those
bolts,
they probably normally DON'T stock them because they probably only
sell 1 every 6 months, so they were never "in stock"

The way I look at it is I can walk into an auto parts counter and order
an emissions hose for $5 that is for a car that is 21 YEARS old (I just
did that 3 months ago) and they have it - of course it takes them a week
to get it - but the factory STILL has one of those hoses sitting around
in a warehouse. Since they probably stopped manufacturing those
hoses 2 decades ago, to me this is an amazing thing. The rental cost
alone for the space that that part occupied for the last 2 decades
probably cost the factory more than the part itself. So, I am more
than willing to cut factory parts distributors some slack!

Ted

 

No trouble here, But we dont have a tin can in our parts or service
department, If we did, those lazy parts guys wouldnt look for them anyhow

Small chuckle with this one..... When an order is placed thru the depot we
dont just order one bolt, normally you get cages and boxes of parts daily.
and even if it were just one bolt, they would send it!!!


..> Most likely the distributor makes one or two orders

Wrong again. they get rid of them and the parts listing Goes NS1, no longer
available thru Chrysler, With the thousands of dealers in the world, we have
the option to run it on the computer to see if any one of these dealer may
have one sitting on the shelf. If the part is found we order from the
individual dealer

The rental cost