Door check straps and bolts

Maintenance advice to keep your Spider in shape.
Post Reply
User avatar
JammerX19
Posts: 169
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:46 am
Your car is a: 1974 124 Spider

Door check straps and bolts

Post by JammerX19 »

Noticed one of the bolts on my drivers' side door check strap is loose. Tried to tighten it but it won't, just keeps spinning. Anybody ever run into this? Doesn't look like a regular nut on the other side...what is it?
Jody Farr
'74 124 Spider
'12 Fiat 500 Prima Edizione #13
User avatar
azruss
Posts: 3659
Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 12:24 pm
Your car is a: 80 Fiat 2000 FI

Re: Door check straps and bolts

Post by azruss »

jody, i think that is a floating plate inside a box. sounds like the hole is stripped. plate is too thin to helicoil. not a simple fix.
User avatar
manoa matt
Posts: 3442
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2006 4:28 pm
Your car is a: 1978 Fiat 124 Spider 1800
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii

Re: Door check straps and bolts

Post by manoa matt »

The "nut" is actually captive within the door check strap itself. The "nut" is actually a stepped steel dowl that has a thredded hole in the center. The steel door check strap waps around the dowl tightly keeping it from spinning. However after years of use and repeated flexing the check strap looses its grip on the dowl allowing it to spin.

If you can get a needle nose pliers back there you can grip it and keep it from spinning. Or remove the other bolt and remove the check strap to see how its made which will help you fix the problem. I guess you could always tack weld the dowel to the check strap, or epoxy it to keep it from spinning.
Post Reply