yea it did take along time, but i didnt have the money for a press.
I was planning on tearing everything off and doing it on the press at work, but that would have taken a lot longer, and I figured that it was worth the time. I occasionally also do side jobs for friends, so I knew it would pay for itself.
my lower control arm bolt to the power steering rack wont come out. the bolt is stuck in the inner metal sleeve. when i was unscrewing the bolt the inner sleeve came with it and bent the bracket. i’ve tried vice grips, beating with a sledge hammer and a saw zaw. the inner metal was so smooth the saw zaw kept cutting into the bracket. the vice grips can’t hold the sleeve no matter how hard i tighten it. the hammer didn’t break anything loose. i was beginning to wonder if the bolt was supposed to come out of the sleeve at all?
umm? Do you have a picture, your power steering rack should be connected the to the knuckles by a tie bar, never touching your lca. Your lca is then bolted to the frame, strut fork, caster rod, and sway bar if I remember right, so I dont know which bushing you are talking about. Is your underbody badly oxidized?
im guessing its the frame but it looks like a rack the power steering rack bolts up to as well. its the last bolt on the lca
you can probably have some luck if you heat it up really fawkin hot with a torch and then try to separate them.
ohh it will come out, have you tried any agents on it, I must just be rusted shut. I did notice that the bracket looks rather tweaked. did you try using an impact wrench when removing it? Worse case senario I would get a rotary and try to cut it. Do you have access to a compressor and air tools?
no air tools and yes the bracket is tweaked BAD. i sprayed wd-40 and let it sit for an hour. no luck so went with pb blaster let that sit for a day. nothing. the bolt is frozen inside the metal sleeve. i wish i could get to some air tools. i’ll ask around tomorrow.
i had that exact same problem dude, so bad ive only got the drives side done. i know the frustration of useing every penetrating lubricant known to man , plus torches, plus force. and having it not budge.
on the right side on your first pic the bolt youre trying to get out threads into a nut thats welded to the bracket. when i tried to back my bolt out it stripped that entire nut. i had to cut the bolt out using a combiation of a sawzall, chisels, and air tools. i nicked the bracket in one spot a little, but i cant see it being a problem. then i had to chisel that welded nut off. and now im gonna put a new nut on there and put some JB weld between the nut and the frame, sine i cant weld it yet. one of the guys at First State Moto assured me that path i took was not a problem and even said that JB welding it wasnt needed, if i use high strength threadlocker, and torque it to spec, that itll hold just as well.
now im gonna have to repeat the process again with the passenger side. making sure to use every last method of keeping rust away.
just waiting to gather the rest of my money for new OEM hardware. i bought some “Auto” grade bolts at ACE, but i dont trust them for some reason.
EDIT- the problem is, the center shaft of that bolt has ridges running down it, the sleeve does not. but when rust forms on the inside ofthe sleeves, between the grooves on the bolt, it keeps it from spinning. when i took mine out the bolt fit back in the sleeve like a “key” if u know wut mean.
I had the same exact problem on the same bolt. I just cut both ends of the bolt off and bought a new bolt.
By the way, on the bushing install, I burn the center section out with an acetylene torch and air hammered the casing out. But be careful doing that so you don’t ruin the inside of the control arm. But if you scratch it like I did when I did my bushings I just smoothed it back out with a dremel.
thats exactly what happened to my bolt. it stripped and i know it has to be chisled off. going to put the car together and get it towed. this is a little over my head as i have no power tools of any kind.
guaranteed that welded nut is stripped too, its abitch to get that off.
tow truck picked up the car today… will hear something back tomorrow.
the shop is charging me $300 to fix this and do the bushing on the other side… WTF!!!
Ouch dude. If you need any help or advice or anything else let me know. I live in Norfolk and I used to be a mechanic and I know people and ways to make shit work. Just email me. crazyblckguy@hotmail.com
that would rock as i still need to install all the other bushings. if you are free sometime this week let me know.
Wow. Im glad im not the only one that had a problem with the LCA bolt going to the rear cross member.
I fixed mine by dropping the rear cross member “looping the lines on the p/s rack” and used my plasma cutter to cut a chunk of the rear cross member off and bought another one off ebay for 55 bucks shipped.
Sorry for bringing up an old thread. Do i need a press for the upper control arm bushings? there are 4 total? Thanks
you mean for the anchor bolts the upper a-arm attaches to? i originally tried toget the old bushins and sleeve out with the regular method of burning out the old rubber, and cutting the sleeve out. i gota little frustrated beacuase the anchor bolts are so small so i had them pressed out, installing the new ones was easy though. Did it with my hands.
Yeah the anchor bolts, so ring needs to come out too? Damn, ok Thanks man will a drill press work?