Tightening cradle bolts

[Sabrewings]

If I wanted to tighten the cradle bolts, without removing the engine/tranny, how would I support it? I thought I would put some jack stands under the cradle where the control arms are mounted, taking the engine's weight off the bolts and in fact putting the car's weight on the bushings making sure there's no gap.

The reason I ask is I've seen a half dozen cases where 04 w-bodies have slightly loose rear cradle bolts from the factory (as in, cradle never dropped or otherwise messed with). I get an occasional pop if I'm backing up an incline out of a parking space, and want to get this out of my mind.

 

[archemedes]

jack stands should work fine, when dropping cradles at the dealership we just used the hoist so same basic idea I would think

 

[02GT4door]

I think there was a TSB for thoe aluminum cradles where the welds would crack during hard/abrupt manuevers and cause slight cracking in some of the rear welds and cause a popping sound, have you called a dealership to check on it?

 

[Sabrewings]

I have the GM techline program that comes with the TSBs, and that one doesn't apply to my car.

Thanks, though.

 

[IndeedSS]

I've had my car in 3 times for the cradle bolts being loose. This last time they said thread lock was used.

 

[SyntheticShield]

I think there was a TSB for thoe aluminum cradles where the welds would crack during hard/abrupt manuevers and cause slight cracking in some of the rear welds and cause a popping sound, have you called a dealership to check on it?

Sorry to hijack, but can anyone send me or post up that TSB. I am going to be getting an aluminum cradle and it would be nice to be able to take of those things before it goes in the car.

 

[Sabrewings]

PM me your e-mail.

Looking at the TSB again, it appears to have been updated to include 04 year models. Talks about there being slight movement between welds that make up the subframe. No danger of failure, just an annoyance to drivers.

 

[02GT4door]

I thought I remembered that, go my stupid memory that always remembers crap I really don't need to know lol