PITA lower shock bolt

I'm going to break out the Sawzall in the morning if no one has any helpful suggestions on getting this miserable bolt out of the lower shock mount. Seems to be seized to the bushing inside. Ive tried beating the ever lovin' shit out of it with a 3lb maul and as you can see from the picture, all that accomplished was to bend the mounting tabs.

The other side gave me no trouble at all.



To answer questions before they are asked: The axles are pulled to replace the boots and to clean and paint the spindles which were ridiculously rusted.

 

Lots of penetrating oil and heat (I'm assuming you're replacing the shock so the bushing isn't of concern). In the end though, sometimes the sawzall is your best bet. That's how I had to get my LCA off, bolts were seized up solid.

 

Try using compressed air on the bolt. Hold the can upside down to freeze the bolt (it will shrink the bolt). Hit both sides very good (probably use the whole can). You can pair that with a flame on the eye of the shocks.

 

When in doubt, C4..

 

First try some penetrating oil, if that doesn't work heat that sucker up and get a punch and a hammer and beat it out. If that doesn't work well I guess get a bigger hammer and hit harder

 

Don't heat the bolt up. That will make it worse. Freeze the bolt.

Heating the shock eye up may help but probably not as its stuck in the bushing.

 

How do you figure heat won't help? Also, unless you have a supply of liquid nitrogen, how to you propose he go about freezing that bolt? Heat can sometimes loosen a rust frozen bolt. Heat and a metallic massage can work wonders as a last resort to cutting the bolt.

 

Good point! Sorry I read that super quick. Ya try freezing it or even try spinning it with an impact and hitting the one side. Maybe the spinning of the impact might loosen it up. Has worked for me but not with anything stuck in a bushing. Get a torch out and cut it out!

 

Thanks guys, all good ideas and i've headed back to that son of a B a few times today to try most of these in between taking everything else apart. Whats inside that lower shock mount? rubber bushing ? steel sleeve? I can't believe how, whatever it is, seems to be welded to that bolt!

This is what is replacing the stock equipment along with Camburg UCA's.


Mike (Pugga) knows what I'm dealing with; he's a local to rust central, USA.

 

Inside the lower shock mount is a rubber bushing and a steel sleeve inside of the rubber. The bolt rusted to the steel sleeve.

 

Heat expands. You can expand a nut stuck on a bolt. But a bolt stuck IN a something, like abushing... expanding wont exactly work. And where did you get liquid nitrogen from? Just get a can of compressed air and spray it upside down. Works wonders .

 

O hell your replacing it? Ya cut it out beat it out burn it out do what ever just gotta replace that bolt

 

St Andrew that's a good point. I'll have to keep that in mind!

 

I agree that heat expands but it's not like pressing a ball joint into place where the issue is the tight fit. The bolt fits perfectly fine inside the sleeve, the issue is the rust. Freezing it won't do anything to help the rust, the heat can help loosen things up. Heat and the shock from hitting it with a hammer can help loosen the rust bond between the bolt and the bushing or the bolt and the nut. The compressed air thing is clever, I'll have to keep that in mind when my LBJ's go to hell.

x2, sawzall and a trip to the hardware store for a new bolt.

 

Just buy the new bolt and cut it off, don't over think so much
Save your self headaches lol

 

Yeah, I'm not over thinking so much as not wanting to tear up the rear mounting tab. If you look at the picture in the original post, you can see that the shock is up against the rear tab so when I take the SawZall to it (as I will first thing tomorrow), I'm going to tear up the inner face of the rear tab. Just wanted to avoid that if I could. I will need to cut the bolt on both sides of the lower shock mount.

 

Someone got a new frame there! Strange that the bolt rusted solid, your control arms are pristine. cut it off and replace it with a grade 8 or toyota bolt.
Also how long did it take toyota to replace your frame?

 

New in 2011 (Thank you Toyota) I just got a notification in the mail that my Tundra frame needs to be inspected for rust as well... 10mm perforation means either new frame or buy back.

The spindle arm were rotting so they have been cleaned and painted along with everything else piece by piece.

About 3 weeks.

I replaced or restored everything in the back end, now working on the front end.



Alright, I'm headed down to fire up the Sawzall ...

 

When you freeze or heat it, the expanding/contracting is what breaks up the rust. Depending on the situation, you would want to heat or freeze. In this situation you would want to heat the sleeve (impossible because its stuck in a bushing) or freeze the bolt (or both). Ive been doing it for years. If its really a PITA, alternating between heat and cold can help break up the rust.


Froze the hanger bolt on my rear leafs when doing the AAL install. After hammering it so much it bent and warped, I cut off the warped part, froze the bolt and it poped out the first hammer swing .

 

For rust you need heat.

In this case, he needs to cut the bolt most likely. Freezing it will do nothing. It's not interference fit. It's loose in there. Just rusted in. Low tenperatures do nothing for rust.