Taillight nut stripped, ideas?

On my 348, the plastic hand nut just spins, I assume the brass nut in the plastic has stripped its teeth and is just spinning. I pried the backing bucket to apply pressure to the nut like you would do with a cage nut, that made no difference either.

Before I start cutting and what not I figured I'd see if anyone has encountered this and has an elegant solution.

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yep the nut actually tightens down tight, when backing in out it then just spins, so its not the nut, must be the stud. Will have to buy a new housing cover and cut this one off I imagine. ugh...

 

That exact what I thought Miro, it was the first thing I did, no dice, it just spins when undoing. I tried light and heavy pressure. Very odd. The nut tightens down snug but when backing off after 1 turn it just spins. I ordered a new back cover but I am not sure they are available. If so I'll cut it off and see whats happening.

Daniel I saw that, do you have the threaded boss also the nut screws into?
Thanks!

 

Looking at that photo, thanks btw... I bet the big threads in the in the back of the light are cross threaded and is now just spinning. When you apply pressure you can fell the light moving out then back in then out then back in as it turns.

 

Yes did that as well, spun no pressure, medium and hard pressure for almost 30 min. Even tried slipping small box wrench down there to catch the nut. Hand nut just spins but it always tightens back up snug with 1.5 twists. I am guessing sheet metal threads are cross threaded on the way out.

 

Crap the LH plastic cover is NLA. Searching for a used one now before I cut it off.

 

Ohh cheers! That's a freaking GOOD idea, get a carbide dremmel cutting bit down in there. Then I can diagnose the issue and retain the impossible to get bucket.

 

OK I got it off for others. I did what Miro suggested. Easy breezy. At least for this one where I had easy access. The left cover is NLA so chopping it apart is an issue. The issue was the jam nut was NOT tight on the stud and the stud was just spinning. You can see it in picture 3 below. If your ever back there double check those.

• First step is hacksaw off the excess nut.
• Dremmel off the face of the nut with a Dremmel and a carbide bit, (it looks like a straight cut router bit)
• Pry the cover off to pop off the excess plastic you could not get after you get 80% of it. (it tends to just spin)
• What your left with is the shank and nut of the thumb nut you can then back off.
• You can see the jam nut was loose and when backing off the thumb-nut the jam nut would back off the sheet metal and then just spin. Pretty sure the result was the light assembly where the stud screws into the light housing is not hogged out. If I ever take it out it can be filled with epoxy and re-tapped though.
• Only damage was a scrape to the cover and it was actually from the hack saw, it bit in an an angle as I was sawing like they tend to do, I was cutting real close scraped the cover. I will take a wheel to that though.

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This was all preventative maintenance too. Changing every bulb and fuse and any remotely suspicious relays in the car. Goes to show the old "while we were in there we found" always happens. In fact a captive nut slipped on my side passenger cheese grater (ugh.. a whole f'in there there). Even simple things like "change a light bulb for good measure" can turn south with older cars once someone else has touched that part it in the past.

BTW I pinged the Ebay vendor about the light cover here is what he said, after we went back and forth I assumed he thought I was talking about the tail light grill cover with the Cavilino badge. Nope...

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