Anyone have suggestions on making removal of the front control arms easier?

I am trying to remove the front coil springs and I can't get them compressed enough to clear the K-member tower. Everything is disconnected and cleared from the control arm. I tried removing the pivot bolts, but they are so tight, I've tried vice grips pulling on the bolts, they just don't wanna come out.

Thanks

 

so you have the nuts off the bolts for the a-arm mounts? Can you give the bolt a good smack with a drift and a hammer and see if it breaks it free? Maybe pick up new bolts when you are done too

If the spring is still on the arm, it may still be exerting force on the a-arm, be very careful when removing these bolts. If the spring is still compressed it could blow out and really hurt you.

 

I had to use a propane torch to burn one of the bushings out before I could get the bolt out. The other three bolts came out pretty easy.

 

The bolts are seized to the metal inserts of the bushings. Took me as much as an hour on two of the four.

JamesC

 

Mine came right out after I separated the ball joint and lowered the A-arm with my floor jack. The springs hung up (uncompressed) on their perches, but came out with a little shaking. After all that, removing the pivot bolts was a piece of cake.

 

Is the sway bar still connected?

The springs should come out eaisly if the a arm goes to full drop.

 

Sorry, didn't get notification for the replies...

I am a bit confused as to what some of you mentioned about (4) bolts holding the control arm, you are talking for both sides, right?

I currently have everything disconnected from the A-arms with the exception of the coil spring and the (2) bolts that mount the control arm to the K-member. I have the car up in the air with jack stands under the front sub-frame, everything else is just hanging. It took me lodging a 2x4 between the control arm and subframe to even get the control arm to swing down (with the spring compressed). I can not believe how tight those bushings are!

Unfortunately there is not enough room to swing a hammer at the rear mounting bolt.

I have not tried the heat yet, all I have is a small butane torch, hope it's enough... I'll give that a whirl. Thanks.

 

What I did for what I believe were factory springs was let the control arm go fully down, then push it all the way down. You will have to jack the car higher then normal to go clear to the ground with the control arm. (it still didn't come out) Then I grabbed a steel pipe and shoved it between the spring coil and the arm and poped it free.
I had no idea how much force was behind the spring so I stood to the side so if it came flying out it couldn't hit me.
My old springs released with a "bang" and fell to the ground.
You will never get the factory springs back in there with out a compressor, I had ebiach 1-2 inch drop springs going in and every one told me they slip right in which they did.
As far as the bolts go, mine came right out. Can you get an air hammer on it?

 

Instead of compressing the spring...

It was either one of my Camaros or te Tahoe, don't recall which, I used a chain to keep the coil spring chained in place to keep it from flying out, & just had a floor jack under the a-arm. Te spring will easily push the arm down, and the chain stops it from coming out n its own.

Take the chain off, pull the spring, reverse the process.

 

Thanks, I'll try it without the spring compressed.

 

I couldn't get the chain tight enough. I think the one I was using was to big.

 

I finally got one side off last night! The biggest problem was the spring compresor I was using. It was the right style (up through the middle of the spring), but the threaded part of it was too long and was not letting me compress the spring enough. The rod would hit the bottom of the K-member, I was thinking originally, the spring just didn't want to go anymore... I went to home depot, got some 3/4" steel couplings and used them as spacers below the bottom spring fingers. This allowed the spring to be compressed further and everything pretty much fell apart, including the pivot bolts to the A-arm! I am very relieved, thanks for all the replies.