While trying to remove the transmission crossmember I found that one bolt spins freely in the hole and won't drop out. Any suggestions on how to remove it and what got damaged? The attached pic is one i pulled from the forum but it shows the bolt that's stuck.

 

Anyone else had this problem or similar lmk thank you

 

You have a weld nut that has broken the welds inside the chassis. To get the bolt out often times you can just put a flat head screw driver under the washer while unscrewing the bolt. This only gets the bolt out, to reinstall you will need a nutsert.

 

any idea how to access that nut? i've taken apart the interior and no luck finding the nut

 

I don't think you can actually get to those kinds of nuts without cutting through the car. Kinda sucks.

 

I had a similar issue on my daughter's old car. Drilled out the spot-welds on one side, air-chiseled the bracket loose and bent it back just far enough to re-weld the captured nut. Then plug-welded the bracket back in place.

 

Are you talking about one of the lower two nuts that hold the PPF to the trans or the upper ones or something else?

After rereading I think I understand. One of the bolts that goes to the trans tunnel brace is stripped?

If that's case I'd go with Banzai's flat head screw driver/chisel advice or worst case a cutting wheel LOL

If you end up effing up the brace I have some

 

i got a first gen rx7. I've had to track down every bolt on this car so far. started from a shell. My crossmeber takes 2 bolts on the driver side it's a m10x1.25 60mm but the passenger side is a m12 not sure on the pitch. I read they both were m10. Maybe someone made this one bigger. The threads are stripped in the chassis. My question is how the heck are there threads in there surely the perch isn't solid. But it looks like a heli coil in there. A nutsert is strong enough to hold the the transmission and all. Do i just drill the sucker out?

 

@vfr4life Might be better off posting that question in the first gen section.
https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...-1979-1985-18/

Sounds like a similar problem but not sure if the suggestions made for the 3rd gen are directly applicable to the 1st gen.

Good luck