stuck pivot bolt on a arm
 

My cousin came over and we decided to install the front springs. I followed the tech article and the driver side went fairly smooth. We took off the caliper and rotor (does the rotor even need to come off?), took out the 2 pivot bolts, lowered the a arm and pulled the spring out. Install went really smooth once we figured out a good way to line up the bolt holes on the a arm.

We went to the passenger side thinking we were pros now... WRONG. The front pivot bolt is totally stuck. We got the rear out fairly easy. We used heat, we used lots of Penetrating oil, tried hammering (there isn't much room), we tried pressing it out with a ball joint c clamp. Nothing is really working.

What should I try next and what are my options? I just want to get it on the ground (finished) and look at it :) Granted the car is 25 years old, but in all honesty it isn't really rusty under the car at all. If I had my 4 post lift that I've been wanting I'd be able to get some better hits with a hammer. Maybe this can be a good reason to tell my wife I need one right now. :)

... anyways, please help,

John

Re: stuck pivot bolt on a arm
 

I feel your pain. I used a four-pound sledge and a chisel (two of mine had frozen). I pounded the chisel under the bolt head, then drove the head back in--over and over and over and...well, you get the picture. The seize between the bolt and the sleeve eventually broke free, but the whole bloody ordeal was awful. I used anti-seize on the new bolts. Best of luck.

JamesC

Re: stuck pivot bolt on a arm
 

Thanks for letting me know I'm not the first to ever encounter this horrible experience. My cousin had to go home and so I sprayed a ton of oil on it and I'll try some stuff tomorrow. I'm open to any ideas.

I was thinking to grind off the bolt head, then using an air chisel to push it through backwards. There is a lot more room in the front (towards the front bumper) than there is where the nut goes.

I so badly just wanted to see it lowered :) Is it possible to unbolt the strut and pull the spring out from the front side?

Re: stuck pivot bolt on a arm
 

You don't need to take the a-arm bolts out to change the springs. Take off the swaybar end links, remove balljoint from the spindle (with a floorjack supporting the a-arm) and slowly let down the jack. I have an old rearend axle that I use to pry the spring out with, but a big prybar will work. Make sure when installing the new spring to line up the end of the coil in between the two holes in the a-arm. Good luck.

Re: stuck pivot bolt on a arm
 

oh yeah, does this mean I have to get new bushings? I know I have to at least replace the bolt. Can I just clean out the bushing sleeve and put in a new bolt (unless the heat melted it).

Re: stuck pivot bolt on a arm
 

I wanted to give an update in case anybody else ran into the same dilemma or in case anybody wanted to see the after pics.

So I read that another way was to pufll the top bolt of the strut and do the spring from the front side. I got the spring out easy enough, but I could not get the new spring to sit in the top and bottom perches correctly at the same time. When going in from the back side (lowering a arm by removing pivot bolts) it lined up really straight, the front side kind of needed a bend in the spring. I thought I might have had it, but after I double checked I could see that it was not quite right in the top perch. There wasn't much more I could do so I figured I would just take it to a place.

I took the opportunity to paint my calipers so they showed nicely through the new rims. I got it all back together (luckily the frozen pivot bolts threads weren't chewed up at all from hitting it with a hammer). I lowered the car down and I could see right away the passenger side didn't look right. :( I went around to the driver side and it looked good when I heard a loud BANG. Usually I wouldn't want to hear a noise like that from my car, but in this case I was super happy. The passenger spring popped the rest of the way into its upper perch.

before:
Attachment 364873

after:
Attachment 364874

Re: stuck pivot bolt on a arm
 

Vary cool wheels! :)