Working on my brother's 76 242, which began making serious sounding belt noises. Upon inspection, I found that the AC/power steering set up was extremely loose as if it wasn't connected to the engine block.

I tightned the one bolt I could find and drove it to my place to figure out what was going on. He has Frau Bleucar in the meantime to get him around.

The AC/power steering set up is mounted in a large bracket that bolts to a mounting plate, that in turn attaches to the block with three studs/nuts and a bolt. All three studs are broken off, with the ends remaining in block obviously.

Wonderful, what a challenge. There is actually some room to attack with a small enough drill if I had one. I would try the weld a nut trick if I could actually see what I was doing, but thats doubtful given the location. I really would rather not pull the engine out, but thats a possibility.

Anyone run into this before? If so, how did you fix it and what tools were useful? I figure a short enough drill turning left had bits might allow me to use an extractor on the ends of the studs.

Advice is welcome.

Zimm