As any shade-tree mechanic knows, there is nothing worse than an over torqued nut in a hard to reach place. Unfortunately, as we have continued to progress on the 850Rs front steering and suspension components we have run into issues of over-torqued bolts, most likely done with airguns by incompetent service techs. We ran into this issue on the lower strut tower bolts (first pictured), and the upper bolt for the sway bar end links (also pictured). Thankfully due to their location we were able to cut the nuts off the bolt and hammer them out. In the case of the sway bar end link, the thread was part of the linkage, however they would be replaced anyway. The bolt that was cut from the strut tower was easily replaced, Steve and I found a few 850s and a donor S70 in our local LKQ Pick-A-Part, which also allowed us to get the second piece that we had broken yesterday, the drivers side brake caliper.
The bolt that needed to be cut from the strut tower. This bolt also prevented the brake caliper bolt from being removed which posed quiet an issue when using the Dremel cutting wheels.
The end of the sway bar linkage that needed to be cut for the linkage to be removed for replacement.
Unfortunately in our haste to break the castle nut off the passenger side of the car, we neglected to affix any disk inside of the drivers side caliper that was sitting off the car on a bucket. By compressing the brakes, the drivers side caliper ended up shearing the rubber seals on the piston, effectively ruining the caliper. Now because we were already at the pick-n-pull for the bolt, we snagged the (somewhat) newer caliper off of the S70 we were working on. Now for the tune of $25 we were able to fix our mistake without any major setback.
Additionally we found two tan trim pieces that we needed that were originally missing from the rear hatch. The 850 that we found in the yard also had much clearer, newer, tail lights that we will most likely take in the coming weeks. By the end of the week, we should have the all new control arm, tie rod, and sway bar end links installed on the passenger side, along with the new CV boots which Steve and I will be doing a seperate write up on.