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stuck bolt

Featured Replies

I cant get the rear lower control arm bolt out on my 99 legacy anyone have any ideas?????

Give it a good soaking with PB Blaster. I would also try turning the bolt after soaking it to help the PB Blaster around the bolt.

Edited by Dakotademon7

Front suspension or Rear suspension?

Front crontrol arm rear bushing bolts (the ones that go up into the frame) are torqued to 130 ft lbs. Usually need a breaker bar and a cheater pipe for those.

 

The really long bolt that holds the latteral arms at the bottom of the rear knuckle is always rusted to the bushings. Lots of PB required, and put the nut back on the end and wail on it with a hammer. Thread the nut on until the top is even with the end of the bolt.

That still may not work, in which case, you have to cut it.

I used a breaker bar to get it to turn, spray some wd40, paint on with a brush some ATF, and used an impact to spin the bolt, and put a flat bar between the head and the knuckle to lever it out as it's spinning. You will get a little tension from the swaybar, so you can iether undo the link, or jack up the whole rear of the car so the sway bar is not loaded by the one wheel supporting the car.

 

If you don't have an impact, maybe a 1/2" dr drill can do the trick. Otherwise, use another bolt of the same diameter to drift you the longer bolt, and use the wrench to turn it now and again as you work it out. If it can turn freely with a socket, lever it out with a crowbar or long screwdriver.

WD-40 is great but it isn't a pennetating oil.  All the stuck bolts that I have dealt with get sprayded down with some liquid wrench and spacked with a hammer a few times.  If I know that I'll be working on it the night before that is when it gets sprayed down the first time.  The idea behind hitting it with a hammer is that the shock wave will alow the pennetrating oil go seep into the threads which will in turn start to soften the rust that is on them.

I just did mine on my 98' and it was a real bugger. I used PB for the first 2 days and whaled on the nut end just as Fairtax suggested. Still nuthin. Finally I heated it a bit with a propane torch and it begrudgingly turned with a 1/2" breaker bar and cheater pipe. Felt like 200 ft-lbs. Gotta watch that you don't get the flame too close to the rubber boot or you'll be replacing it. I wasn't worried about annealing the bolt since I'll find another at the U-Pull It yard.

 

Of course I then discovered that the CV is also frozen stiff. After waiting another day with more PB and breaking my favorite gear puller I finally removed the knuckle and axle together.  

 

Life is good.

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