Darn it, stuck bolt, lower front strut

Sounds like you want him to use liquid nitrogen, not gonna happen....

Clearly you didn't read why heating the bolt is going to take care of this issue, the heat travels down the bolt,thru the thin ass sleeve its froze on, the sleeve is still part of the rubber bushing so the heat will at least soften the rubber to point of melting allowing easy removal of bolt, hitting on it all day without doing this isn't going to get it done

Good Chris & you ??

 

Just cut the bottom of the shock out, the cut through the bolt between the 2 mounting spots on the lower control arm. Pull out the piece of the shock with the rusted bolt still inside and hammer out the 2 end pieces of the bolt that are still in the holes. Now i know i have a 2nd gen and most of this knowledge does not carry over but i think it might work. Working on shit is all the same regardless of what platform it is. Remove the shit in the way and go to town on that sucker. Glad i moved out of michigan. The salt belt sucks and people like who are getting ticked over the fact that somebody makes a suggestion that may have already been said. All we are trying to do is help you out bud. Contact atvlifestyle or taco.vr4, they are local to the state and may be able to give some insight to a 1st gen.

 

I'm good Doug, just hanging out at work, producing about 970kscf of liquid N2 an hour, wondering why someone would suggest freezing a bolt with a can of spray air when the bolt is too dense to actually freeze all the way through enough to separate it from the sleeve. Seems like a waste of time. Personally I would just swing the hub out of the way and get a blade between the affected area and cut. But maybe it just seems too simple. Personally, I would've unbolted the lower ball joint, unbolted the LCA from the frame(gonna need an alignment anyway from doing the lift) unbolted the shock from the top mount, and walked that whole assembly over to a bench(or any hard surface) and that bolt would have been history.

 

At the end of the day this is what may take place, I'd still try to just burn the rubber out of shock eye , must be the pyro in me....haha

 

Nothing wrong with that.

 

Who said anything about liquid nitrogen? Compressed air in a can is plenty cold . Trust me, it'll work.

As for your heat trick, Im still not sold. Again, heating the bolt will just cause it to expand. You generally apply the heat around the stuck bolt, not on it .

 

Heating any bolt or nut to free it works because the two metals expand and contract at different rates allowing the rust bond to break to a point where you can manage it. Just because it expand doesn't mean it's going to stay like that. Freezing works the same way but most people have easier access to an oxy-acetylene torch than liquid nitrogen.

 

FACT

 

Oh I get the whole heating dissimuliar metals thing.. What I'm saying is apply heat to the area in red scribble.....




If he heats this area it will get hot enough to MELT THE RUBBER AROUND THE MOLDED IN SLEEVE Which is what has a death grip on the bolt, doesn't matter if the bushing is destroyed because he's changing shocks/struts

 

I thought the metal bushing inside the molded rubber around the bolt is what is siezed? If so...releasing the metal bushing from the rubber won't accomplish anything as the metal bushing will not fit through the hole of the LCA because that is still stuck to the bolt.

 

Wish it were here, I'd heat the piss out of it couple hard whacks with a 48oz single jack & that bolt/sleeve would seperate or like suggested if you didn't give 2 shits about the shock you could cut the eyelett off the bottom

 

Yes I understand the concept; freezing vs heating depends on the situation. Sometimes you want to expand the metal and sometimes you want to contract it. Freezing the bolt in this situation is the easiest and probably the most effective way of getting it unstuck.

That will work; miss understood you. Either way though, your going to heat to bolt which will be counter productive. Freezing the bolt does the same thing, just a different approach.

Either way, good luck OP. As you haven't replied in a while, Im assuming the bolt is out and you are test driving your new suspension .

 

Agreed....

 

I conquered that bitch.

Sawzall with new blades and a new bolt. Grade 8, of course.

Cut the bolt on the left of the sleeve and on the right. Slid the old strut out, popped the new one in.

Also ended up cutting BOTH front eye-bolts on the rear-leafs. New bolts on those, too.

The shackles actually came out quite easy, and now have new, greased up bushings and sleeves in them.

Had to cut most of the u-bolts holding the axle on, as those were seized up fairly well, too.

Now, last hurdle is cutting my exhaust away from where the new leaf-pack is.

I'll leave it with a down-turn, so I am blowing the exhaust down towards the road.

Almost done with this bitch of a project. Lots of fun, huh?

All I have left to do is: finish installing the new Nitrochargers, align axle and tighten u-bolts, put wheels back on, differential drop, and then an alignment. Oh, and brake-pads. I planned on doing them when I did the front suspension, but I got a little sidetracked...

 

Props for staying after it Doug....

It's not really that hard as long as your shit isn't all rusted up, thank God i'm in SoCal.......


Post up pics when done !!

 

Good job Doug, rusted bolts can be a frustrating.

 

Great job Doug, glad you got that taken care of.

 

Wish i had found this article before i pounded the flanges to shit on my lower bolt but ....

Fyi. I used a carbide blade on my dremel oscillating too . It cut both bolts out easily. Wish i had thought of it in the first place. Buy 2 blades to be safe but it only took one for me and both bolts off in 15min. Completely sized.

 

Just had the same issue with my 03' Driver's side yesterday. Soaked, hammered, etc - then got out my trusty angle grinder with cutting wheel and went to town. I made sure I had a couple extra bolts first though ;-)
Then during reassembly I cleaned the threads of all the bolts and used lots of anti-seize, especially on the shank of that stinkin lower mounting bolt! Gawd, it rides SOOO much better now!