I was taking the suspension off this weekend and I can’t seem to get the bolt unstuck from the inner sleeve of the bushing where the trailing arm meets the lower control arm. I hammered on it and let the impact gun go to town for some time.
Any suggestions on how to get this bolt out without destroying the trailing arm?
Did it cross thread on the other side? Rule of thumb with impacts is thread in the bolt as much as u can by hand cuz the impact will destroy the threads if is not done that way.
I think I may have explained the situation poorly.
I am trying to remove this bolt, it will rotate in the threads of the nut on the other side without a problem. But the middle part of the bolt is stuck/fused with the inner part of the bushing so when I turn the bolt the bushing turns. When I let go of the pressure, the bushing rotates back into place and takes the bolt with it.
I never assemble anything with an impact gun. I will sometimes use an air ratchet for long bolts but I always torque by hand and if there is a torque spec in the manual for something, I use it.
Hate to say this Robin… But you’re going to have to cut it out, press out the bushing, and buy a new one. Mine was so eff’d up that I had to actually cut the control arm off. It was hell.
Edit You can try heating it up, but this will probably cause the rubber bushing to melt, then it will just ‘spin’ inside the collar/control arm. Like I said, its a huge pain in the ass, and very common on DC integras…
O ok. Try and see if a pry bar or long screw driver will hold the bushing from spinning while you loosen the bolt. Or try to pry the bolt out with a pry bar. Last resort is usea punch to knock the bolt out from the other side be super careful with this cuz if the punch is too thick it could mess up the threads.
Hey bud, I found this link… It may help ya…
http://www.superhonda.com/forum/f94/diy-pics-broken-lca-bolt-56k-161736/
Even though its the trailing arm part, same concept.
Pry bar and that link are both great. Thanks guys.
Another option I may have is to cut the bolt on both sides of the bushing. The side on the nut is loose enough now that I could probably just remove it with a drill if the rest of the bolt was out.
I hope it isn’t as bad as yours was, Unified, but if I do have to end up cutting something, I will probably just cut the trailing arm. It is kinda rusty back by the knuckle anyway.
I’ve got someone lined up who is going to be helping me piece together all the parts I would need for a “kit” from Hardrace and he wants me to send him my arms so he can get precise measurements for the bushings he doesn’t have in stock.
No problemo man. I’m sure you’ll manage to get it free.
I had to cut 4 seized bolts on my DA when I worked on the suspension, it’s a bitch!
Depending on where the bolt is located, just cut both sides and use a punch and hammer the middle part out.
You’re going to have to get new bushings… I opted for the ES ones since it’s easier to install… good luck and have fun 
Use a torch and heat it up. May work but it will heat other things up as well. So look befor you heat for stuff your trying to keep.
hybrid, I am actually taking it apart to put in new bushings, so that is good. I put ES bushings in the first Integra I had about 10 years ago as the first modification to the car and it is even more important on these cars today. One of the front shock arm bushings is actually so far gone on this car that the inner collar contacts the outer collar when braking.
Hardrace, who I mention above, makes bushings (among other suspension stuff) that are a harder rubber instead of polyurethane and I’m having a shop piece me together a kit using DC and EF bushings. I liked my ES bushings, but I wanted to do things a little bit better this time around.
Swhangin, I was thinking I may try to heat up the bolt with a torch and then bang on shit just to see if that loosens anything up.
Either way, I decided I couldn’t do another day in a row out in this 15 degree weather, especially not after a full day of work at the office. I’ll get to it tomorrow night though and let you guys know what worked. Thank you for all of the suggestions!
Robin
When i was taking my lowercrontrol arm off my car i had to cut the bolt of and buy new bushings. afterwords someone game me the advice to try this next time.
heat with propane torch, then take an impact and use it on the bolt to break it free. HOWEVER dont try to take it off completely yet.
bump it out, then back in, lube with PB, and repeat, each step i back the bolt out further. eventually you will get it out.
I’ll have to give that a shot. Right now it seems firmly fused together. It has been almost a week since I’ve been out there though so maybe all the crap I’ve sprayed in there have done their job. One can only hope.
yesterday i had my bolt brake where the lower control arms meets the frame i ended up just drilling it out and knocking off the nut welded at the end. but it sounds to me like u need to slip a pickle fork under the head of the bolt and pry while u use the impact and it should come rite out
Yep. I got lots of stuff to try tomorrow. Thanks to everyone.
same thing happend to me and i used a whole can of pb blaster and let it soak…then it came right out lol gl
trust me try the pickle fork and impact it will pop right out.
Nope. Stuck too good. The funny thing is, I had purchased an angle grinder a few months back for a project but I never ended up using it and had forgotten about it in the trunk of my car until just yesterday.
It was so easy cutting that bolt out I don’t know why I even put the energy into trying to find a different way to get it out (not to knock all the helpful advice you guys gave me. I am sure there will be a bolt in the future that won’t be cut out as easily and I’ll use one of these tips).
I am starting to think the air tools I grew up using sucked. It would have taken forever to cut through something like that using the tools my friend’s dad used to have. This electric angle grinder cut through that shit in about 30 seconds a side.
When using a grinder/drill/cut-off wheel etc, electrical tools FTW for sure… The power behind them is just hard to match with most air tools. Glad you got it handled though man!
It was kind of funny, I couldn’t get 100% through the bolt because of the angle and whatnot and I went back at the first side after doing the second and thought “huh, I guess there was more to grind, I guess I didn’t have the angle right” and then I stopped and noticed that I had just put a little 1cm slit in the edge of my brake dust shield. Lol.