I'm swapping in tubular a arms and the friggin A arm bolt closest to the firewall is stuck..BAD. I can't get my air hammer on the threaded end to push it out. I even tried cutting it with the sawzall but my metal blades were no match for the bolt. ANY SUGGESTIONS??? Thanks

 

I feel your pain. The bolt is seized to the sleeve--ask me how I know. Here's the method I employed: I used a chisel under the head of the bolt and pounded away with my four pounder. When I had the bolt out a wee bit, I flooded the crack with WD-40, then knocked the head back in and started the procedure all over again. Took an hour of sweat, cursing, and muscle fatigue to finally remove the blasted thing.

Rotten news, expect at least one more to be seized.

I slathered the new bolts with anti-seize.

Good luck.

JamesC

 

When I went through that painful experience last winter I used my Dremel to cut the ends of the bolts off. Then I used a carbide burr I had for porting my cylinder heads to grind down the bolt itself till it was far enough in the hole to let me pry the sides of the mount apart enough that I could pound the control arm out. Just be very careful cutting or grinding around here, you don't want to damage the surrounding metal.

 

thanks guys....I just got done grinding the head of the bolt off.... That took an hour and the darn thing still won't budge. I'm gonna try grinding/drilling into the bolt next. This is sooooo much fun.....I've never had a bolt this stubborn! last resort is TNT!

 

SUCCESS!........I heated the area I grinded down with my map gas torch then just hit the threaded end with my air hammer til it popped. I got so mad I just kept that hammer on it for about two minutes. Probably would have worked without grinding the head off the bolt. Oh well next side should be a piece of cake.....right?

 

c clamp works good too

 

Die grinder & cutoff wheel on both the head and the thread end of the bolt, then spread the bracket. Control arm falls RIGHT out.

 

sofa,

Ha. You been in hibernation? Glad to see you posting.

JamesC

 

yeah, been a while. Wondered where you were hiding