Rear Suspension - Removal of lock bolt? - Ideas

[dalee]

I am trying to remove the rear struts and have run into a little issue.  I can't get the lock bolt out that will allow me to slide the tranverse link pivot bolt (TLPB) out and release the rear strut.

 

It seems to have rusted firmly in place, I have taken the weight of the rear of the car up on the bold in an attempt to shift it.  Belted and tried turning the TLPB in an effort to free up the lock bolt wih no success & used genourous amounts of WD40.

 

Really don't want to take the entire A-arm and dif cross member out, I just want to swap both struts.  Has anyone got any ideas on how to remove the bolt. Haymes manual is not particulry helpful, it just says 'remove the lock bolt'.

 

Thanks

Dale

[gilltech]

I had the same problem, many many years ago now. The shafts wouldn't budge, were apparently rusted to the inside steel sleeves of the suspension arm rubber bushes; soaking with CRC didn't help. On my car there is a bolt-like wedge fastener in the centre of the suspension arm to prevent the shaft from sliding forward or back (as if!), so that has to be removed first, but on my car it made no difference at all. The only way out for me was to very carefully hacksaw cut through the shafts (& projecting inner bushes) between the struts & the suspension arms to separate everything. I then borrowed a gas torch to burn out the rubber bushes (still containing the remains of the shafts); the heated rubber burned & charred away to the point where the remains could be driven out. Then followed a very laborious & painstaking 'surgical' removal of the remaining bush outer steel sleeves using a hacksaw to cut deep grooves until a narrow cold chisel could collapse them in & they could be driven out, all without nicking or damaging the arms. I did have to touch up the paint on the arms, thanks to the heat of the gas torch. Then I got someone at a workshop to press in new bushes for me, & when I put it all back together with new shafts I used plenty of copper anti-seizure grease. It took ages, but I got there in the end, & as I had only limited tools & resources didn't have any choice; but it really only cost me the price for new parts. All I can suppose is that the factory didn't use much grease when it assembled the car in the first place. It was a friendly mechanic who suggested I use copper anti-seizure grease; I'd never heard of it before. The theory being that even if the grease dries out then the copper is still there as a soft separation material to keep the steel components apart.

Hope the above helps.

[mayhem]

thats going to be the only way.... nothing is easy when working on bushes :-\

[warrenz]

I assume this is the bolt you cannot undo ?

On my car there is a bolt-like wedge fastener in the centre of the suspension arm to prevent the shaft from sliding forward or back (as if!),

 

It is usually the pivot bolt that is difficult to get out. Have you tried heating it up with a oxy torch or butane torch?

 

Have you tried a longer extension bar on the socket handle to get more leverage, be careful as you can easily snap it off.

 

Sorry we are not much help, if it snaps off then the whole lot has to come out anyway so you can drill it out so maybe it is safer to take it out now so you can attack it with more freedom.

 

If you decide to remove the bushes then my advice is to take the trailing arm to Pedders and get them to press them out, it is money well spent.

 

Warren

 

[matt drago]

What is it that you are exactly trying to achieve?  Do you just want to replace the inserts?  I thought that I had to remove the whole lot, but I didn't.  With the car on wheel stands, I just undid the three bolts on the strut tower and lowered the whole lot down with the trolley jack.  Then all I had to do was undo the nut that kept the inserts in place, swap the inserts and put it all back together again (of course, after a good dal of cleaning and a generous amount of painting).

 

Sorry if I am off the mark as to what you are trying to achieve, just sounded like the process that I went through.

 

Cheers,

 

Matt

[JP]

That bolt is tapered so make sure you are trying to remove it in the right direction. 

 

It has never given me any trouble in the 3 or so cars I have dismantled the rear end from, except the first time I did it and was trying to drive it out the wrong way  :-\

 

Its usually the spindle/pivot bolt thats the tricky one.

[dalee]

Thanks Guys,

 

Gilltech : That sounds like a lot of work for something that should just come apart, hopefully its not going to be that hard.

 

 

warrenz : You are correct, I am talking about the bolt-like wedge fastener in the centre of the suspension arm.

 

Unfortunately I can't get a socket or much else on it as the head is round and flush with the top to the arm.

 

As far as I can tell you should be able to knock it up and out, there is a thread on the part below the A-arm, it but that appears to only be for a nut to stop it rattling loose (talk about over engineered)

 

 

JP : I am assuming this lock bolt has to go up, I think I worked out the pivot bolt slides out towards the rear per Haymes manual.

 

Any ideas appreciated

Dale