Shears bolts help.

The heads of the bolts holding the LBJ to the knuckle sheared off. Meeting advice on the best method to get them out? Do I need to take it the knuckle off the truck or can I do it with it on. I am a very shitty self taught YouTube mechanic that is never done this before so the more information the better.

 

So the bolt is still holding the lower ball joint to the spindle?

Just pull the spindle and pop off the ball joint from the lower control arm; from there try to drill through it to get the bolt out?

@BartMaster1234 had a bolt break on him, maybe he can chime in with his solution

 

I've been there man shit happens. Did the the broken bolt atleast it a couple turn out? If it did you may be in luck because when you complete un bolt it and push down the to free up the spindle the broken part of the bolt may be sticking out, giving you a chance to heat it up and use a vice grip to un bolt it out. Thats how I did it when it brakes

 

- Get the ball joint out of the way
- use vise grips on any stud that's sticking out
- if there isn't a stud, try a center punch then drilling it out
- use an easy out in the drilled hole

Keep in mind if those were stock, they had locktite on them. You may need a torch to heat them up to melt the locktite.

It may be easier to find a used knuckle

 

This happened to me. Three out of the four bolts sheared.

I had to take the steering knuckle off the truck, and use a bolt extractor to remove the sheared bolts (extractor + reverse threaded drill bit)

In addition, one of the bolts was really stubborn. I cut a slot in the shaft and used an impact flathead bit on my pneumatic impact to remove it.

 

Okay sweet thats more or less what I was wanting to know about taking it all off....but I also have never done that and hopefully can find a youtube video on it.

 

Well, you could maybe do it on the truck. But that's like saying you can cut a football field with scissors. It'll only take you a few extra minutes to remove the whole thing. You just need a puller, or a pickle fork.

If you don't want to mess with all that, I recommend you just get a new steering knuckle. I was fortunate most of my bolts were very lose, so it wasn't too hard to remove them with an extractor. If yours are sheared near the mating surface (and can't use vice grips) and it's seized, you're SOL there.

 

Okay well ill habe to look into it more because they are flush... and i dont have any puller so ill need to teach myself about it before I attempt it

 

If they're flush you need a bolt extractor kit.

 

weld a nut on. the heat helps break em loose too. snapped all 4 off my lowers on one side. they got anti siezed after that

 

anti-seize the gift of the gods!

 

especially where i live. i put that shit on everything now

 

You can anti-seize and lock tite the LBJ bolts?

Isn’t that Hatfield and McCoy shit right there?

 

dont need locktite when you have year round salt spray

 

Weld a nut on. Take the knuckle off and have a pro do it if you dont have a welder. If you break an ez out in that hole its gonna be a bad day.

 

Quite a bit comes down to where the OP lives.

We who buy Never Seize buy the case know all to well .What is a simple job where winter seldom drops below 50 F is a major project here

Another steering knuckle living here is what I would keeping this with the idea of trying to fix for a few years then toss it in the scrap.

 

brainfart

 

in this case I would use a self made centering "bolt". I have allen bolts in common sizes 6mm, 8mm, 10 mm in differernt thread pitches that I have center drilled on a lathe with an 1/8 drill bit. You screw the allen bolt into the hole and drill all the way through the broken bolt. When you drill all the way through the broken fastener it does 2 things, it relieves a bit of tension and it allows you to get penetrant behind the fastener. Normal methods can how be used to extract the broken fastener. If it is so stuck that you cant extract it you can now drill it out and possibly rethread it. In some cases using a left hand drill bit will extratc it during the drilling phase.

 

Since no one noticed.

The remaining bolt is a metric grade 8.8. They all should be "high strength" metric grade 10.9 or on Toyota's proprietary grade scale, 11T (OE). Both are roughly equivalent.

Make sure the proper fasteners are used on both sides of the truck.