The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

The captive nuts on my rear bumper ain't captive any more.

What is the best way to get them off?

Well, you can try and pinch the surrounding bracket with a large molegrip. Or bite the bullet and carefully hacksaw through the bolt between the bumper bracket and the wing. This is an all too common problem which, unfortunately, has no easy solution! If you come up with one, we'd all like to know!

Steve

And when you replace the bumper, don't forget to smother the bolts and nuts in copper ease grease so you won't have to go through it all again!

When re-assembling you can do away with the captive nut and just use a normal nut and get creative with a small spanner to tighten. Use some copper grease on the threads too to prevent corrosion.

Or the captive nuts are available from Rimmer's at a reasonable price.

The captive nuts are easily available from any good nut and bolt supplier. The disadvantage of the captive nut is that when they seize on you have no way to get a spanner on the other end and it will grind away at your bumper. Hence why my subtle mod is in my opinion a better option. You can get a spanner on both ends if you need to.

I wedged the nut in place against the bracket with a small spanner, wasn't an elegant solution and it took a very long time and a lot of re-positioning to get the bloody things loose though...