Grounding Posts Broke...Both of Them!

[Czar308]

So, I'm working on replacing a wiring harness and needed to loosen a terminal off a ground stud (I think its a stud) mounted on the driver side fender under the air cleaner near the FICM. Turned the nut with a nut driver. No go. So I went to the obvious, more leverage, more force, bigger tools. Top nut shears off right above the bottom nut that is holding down another ground terminal. So now I need to take the bottom nut off and maybe there is enough thread left to stack all the ground terminals under and still tighten them all down. Didn't learn from the first attempt and sheared the stud off flush with the fender.

So, what's a guy to do, go to the next stud and maybe the grounds can reach further down the fender and share the next stud. Guess what, now I have two sheared (shorn?) studs on the fender.

The studs appear to pass through the fender into 1" round by 1/8" thick coin shaped "backers". Drilled one out and the threads are not cleaning out. Perhaps these are not studs. So I'm looking for a robust fix. Anybody have a good solution. I don't want to add more holes and would prefer to work off the existing coin shaped "backer".

[86Scotty]

Just drill them out or drill some new ones. Grounds can be anywhere. I would improve on what was done there. Use a nut and bolt to make a stud that won't break off. Sand the paint down where you drill and use some dielectric grease to make is bulletproof. If you don't want to drill any more holes in your van then use a punch and a hammer to remove those. Should be pretty easy.

The reason those broke is that they used cheap zinc screws/bolts or whatever they were and those degrade in just a few years even in a dry climate. I would use stainless steel this time around.