installing rear suspension

[Kamikaze]

I'm having a b!tch of a time breaking loose the bolts that go through the bottom of the struts/bushing/control arm on the rear of my coupe - they're rusted in pretty good. (Didn't have any probs on the fronts)

I've tried spraying em down with WD40 and using a breaker bar, but the bushing lets the whole assembly flex too much to get any torque on the bolt. Anyone got any tips for breaking them free?

tia

 

[ImportFan1]

when i did mine i have a f**kin b***h of a time i used the rust buster s**t and that didnt work. cuttin the bolt didnt work (almost killed by shatted sawz-all blade) we finally got it off with a hacksaw and a friends dad works in a ford plant he took it to work and had it redrillin in like 5 min

 

[djnoodle]

Extremely common prob.. You will more than likely have to cut the bolt off and get a replacement, that what i had to do, along with thousands of other honda owners

 

[civic hatch]

your gonna have to cut the bolt if all else fails then just drill out the remaining bolt section, and just remember to put the new bolt in with some kind of anti seize or some kind of rust inhibitor.

 

[ImportFan1]

i cut it off them had one hell of a time tryin to drill it out so my friends dad had to take it to work. i kept breaking drill bits

 

[Mxpx182lit]

i broke about 20 drill bits and the damn new bolts were 20 bucks each from honda, if i woulda thought about ida tried an air hammer

 

[exoin]

My teacher used a torch. Everything was unharmed but its still not advised. I say use an impact wrench but I know for a fact it still wont work.

 

[RaYrAy]

yupyup, i too had to cut the bolt off, then had to burn out the stock bushing and cut out the remaining ring....then just replaced it with Prothane bushings

 

[Kamikaze]

that's what I was afraid of....

I'm gonna soak 'em with PB blaster, let 'em sit for a while, resoak 'em, and try the impact hammer. Hopefully that'll work, otherwise it looks like I'll be cutting 'em out.

Thanks for the feedback...

 

[rey rey]

dam is this what i have to look faward to?

 

[Civlude]

Originally posted by ray ray
dam is this what i have to look faward to?

No, you may luck out like me and BREAK the head off the bolt. Then have to take the entire control arm off and use an air hammer on the b***h (coupled with a ton of spray lube) and get the f**ker out.

But thats only if your lucky......lol

 

[RaYrAy]

I broke my bolt head off firstalso.... but I still had to cut the other side

 

[Kamikaze]

Since it's such a lovely day today, I decided to try and finally get the rear suspension installed. After dosing the bolts with liberal amounts of PB breaker over the course of several days, the left one loosened with minimal effort. However, when I tried the same thing on the right rear, the bolt head decided it was tired of its wholesome existence and snapped off. DOH!

Fortunately, enough of the bolt remained threaded for me to put the wheels back on and idle the half-mile to a wheel & tire shop, and they're going drill it out/replace it.

Just takes one bad nut...

 

[Hashiriya]

Sorry it turned out for you that way. It happens on low mileage recent models like my 98 EX, too

I had to do the cut-n-drill routine on one side. For the other side I took a more comprehensive approach:

(1) I soaked the bolts in PB blaster every night for about a week

(2) I used a little heat on the bolts too (heat w/propane torch for a few minutes, spray with PB, heat again, etc)

(3) I used a heavy-duty impact wrench.

This worked but it took quite a while. A couple of things that might help the next victim of those cursed bolts..... ...Be absolutely sure the impact socket is squarely on the bolt head. If the impact gun isn't budging the bolt at all, switch direction (IOW to tighten) for a few pulses and then go back to loosening mode. I did this about 10-20 times and finally the sucker started moving for me. After another 10-20 times I got about 1/2 of a turn out of the bolt... ...a few more tries and she finally broke free and backed out nice and clean.

I know the other LCA bolts are stuck too... ..I'm not looking forward to breaking them loose but I wanna put in a nice set of LCA's so it's got to happen sooner or later. I will try the same tactic on them that worked on the lower shock bolts.

-Trevor

 

[Kamikaze]

good tips - I just wasn't patient enough with the one that snapped. When one loosened pretty easily, I figured (mistakenly) the other one just needed a little help. heh

In hindsight, I should have just kept soaking and waiting... I was just too damb eager to get it off. lol

It ended up costing $177.86 (only about $40 in parts) for the shop to get the friggin bolt out and replace the bushing, but the good news is that tomorrow morning I'll have the rears done!!! woot! (KYB AGX adjustible struts, cheapo coilovers)