Help!! Any one have any tips/trade secrets on how to remove the bolts from the body side of the rear lower control arms on a 93 Mustang? Everything else is out - axle, upper arms, etc, but I can't get the bolts out of the body. The nuts are off, and the bolts will turn in place, but they won't move out of the bushings/sleeves. Note - have already been using BFH, but to no avail. Thanks for any help you can send my way.
rear lower control arms
- Thread starter 13GT3
- Start date
Good suggestions so far, but here are the problems: 1) the bolt turns, so it is either stuck in the sleeve on the 'isolating tabs' (for lack of a better description)in the id of the sleeve; 2)the bolt is frozen/rusted to the sleeve and is turning inside the bushing; 3) no access to the head of the bolt for grinding or cutoff purposes - only the access hole for a socket; 4) body end of control arm is completely boxed in, with exposure at the attachment point only to the bottom side of the arm - applying heat would eventually burn out the bushing, but the sleeve would still isolated by the arm itself. I'm not sure if there is enough room to operate a sawz-all inside the 'attachment cavity', to cut the bolt, but that may be my next attempt, unless somebody has another idea.
Rabbit07
New member
You need a torch to do it quickly. I have been running into this for years in service. If you damage to control arm you may have to replace it. I have plenty of them if you need one. I suspect though that you will be replacing the bushing anyway.
Here's what you do. Burn the bushing out ( stinks bad! ) Then you heat the sleeve until is is red hot, then drive bolt through.
This work every time.
Here's what you do. Burn the bushing out ( stinks bad! ) Then you heat the sleeve until is is red hot, then drive bolt through.
This work every time.
I have had a similar problem with an '87 (same design). I promise you that the replacement items from Racer Walsh are much cheeper that the struggle you will have trying to save them. You are going to replace the bushings anyway, and replacement arms come with them installed.
Advice: Torch them from the middle, and remove them ANYWAY you can to preverve the mounts. The mounts are much harder to repair, than the arms are to replace.
Good racing.
Bill
Advice: Torch them from the middle, and remove them ANYWAY you can to preverve the mounts. The mounts are much harder to repair, than the arms are to replace.
Good racing.
Bill
SilverHorseRacing
New member
Maybe I'm missing something here, but why not just use a center-punch and a BFH? Unless the actual torque-box is messed up big-time, they should just pop out.
I understand and agree with everyone who has mentioned burning out the bushing for replacement, that's what I do too, but it's hard to burn out the bushing while it's still in the chassis. (Well, at least it's messy, that's for sure)
THe nut is off, the bolt spins, nothing can really be holding it... as far as I can see.
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-Marcello Canitano
www.SilverHorseRacing.com
I understand and agree with everyone who has mentioned burning out the bushing for replacement, that's what I do too, but it's hard to burn out the bushing while it's still in the chassis. (Well, at least it's messy, that's for sure)
THe nut is off, the bolt spins, nothing can really be holding it... as far as I can see.
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-Marcello Canitano
www.SilverHorseRacing.com
SilverHorseRacing
New member
Funny you should mention that... I tried to take apart a tool carousel on a machining center yesterday for a customer. It is basically a big disc with two huge tapered bearings in the center to spin on. Anyway, the bearings were swimming in water-based coolant for about 3 years with no maintenance, and a 6 foot prybar, along with over 200lbs at the end of it (me) and gravity to assist couldn't make it budge. Acetylene torch did what brute force could not, but it wasn't pretty, that's for sure.
But still... how is rust holding the bolt if it is free to spin? I could see if it couldn't move at all, but spinning implies that something has collapsed onto the shoulder, aka, torque-box problem...
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-Marcello Canitano
www.SilverHorseRacing.com
Perhaps the bolt is "naturally welded" to the metal sleeve in the bushing which sleeve has broken loose from the confines of the rubber...spins away and not able to go anywhere.
Who knows? Without images, Marcello, we are only guessing here.
My best "power of rust" adventure story was in trying to remove a brake rotor from a hub. I took the whole spindle assemby to a vocational school and used a 50,000 PSI press.
No joy. Finally just sledged and torched it off.
Cheers.
Who knows? Without images, Marcello, we are only guessing here.
My best "power of rust" adventure story was in trying to remove a brake rotor from a hub. I took the whole spindle assemby to a vocational school and used a 50,000 PSI press.
No joy. Finally just sledged and torched it off.
Cheers.
By way of explaination for you non-snow people:
The bolt becomes rusted to the sleeve that resides inside the bushing. The sleeve then loses its bond to the bushing, and spins, with the bolt, inside the bushing.
The problem is that the holes in the mounts (in this case, the rear) are only the diameter of the bolt size, and not big enough to accomodate the increased diameter of the bushing, which is now rust-welded to the bolt.
Ergo, you cannot get the bolt (and bushing) to pass thru the mount.
Heat, and rust penetrants are usually useless since the errant part is so far from the access point of the end of the bolt. I prefer to just destroy the arm by burning the bushing, then cutting with a torch the bolt in the middle. Arms/bushings are cheap.
Nature at its finest.
Good racing.
Bill
[This message has been edited by bill f (edited April 08, 2005).]
[This message has been edited by bill f (edited April 09, 2005).]
[This message has been edited by bill f (edited April 09, 2005).]
The bolt becomes rusted to the sleeve that resides inside the bushing. The sleeve then loses its bond to the bushing, and spins, with the bolt, inside the bushing.
The problem is that the holes in the mounts (in this case, the rear) are only the diameter of the bolt size, and not big enough to accomodate the increased diameter of the bushing, which is now rust-welded to the bolt.
Ergo, you cannot get the bolt (and bushing) to pass thru the mount.
Heat, and rust penetrants are usually useless since the errant part is so far from the access point of the end of the bolt. I prefer to just destroy the arm by burning the bushing, then cutting with a torch the bolt in the middle. Arms/bushings are cheap.
Nature at its finest.
Good racing.
Bill
[This message has been edited by bill f (edited April 08, 2005).]
[This message has been edited by bill f (edited April 09, 2005).]
[This message has been edited by bill f (edited April 09, 2005).]
I think that 13GT3 options are kind of limited...he's stuck cutting hte bolts/and the arm to get it away from the chassis. Then stuck trying to remove the bolt end from the blind hole in the chassis???
Unfortunatly, it sounds like you're stuck destroying more than you want...but here in the Rust-Belt, we're used to that! Good Luck!
Unfortunatly, it sounds like you're stuck destroying more than you want...but here in the Rust-Belt, we're used to that! Good Luck!
SilverHorseRacing
New member
Ron and Bill,
I never looked at it that way, so I definitely see what you're talking about now. Realize I haven't lived in snow since I was 7, so things like bushings breaking the bonded rubber to stick to the bolt are unheard of for me here in FL, although I'd bet that if I started looking over beach-side cars more often I'd see the same sort of thing.
Anyway, if the problem is as described, then torching and splitting the arm would be among the only viable solutions, albeit an ugly one...
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-Marcello Canitano
www.SilverHorseRacing.com
I never looked at it that way, so I definitely see what you're talking about now. Realize I haven't lived in snow since I was 7, so things like bushings breaking the bonded rubber to stick to the bolt are unheard of for me here in FL, although I'd bet that if I started looking over beach-side cars more often I'd see the same sort of thing.
Anyway, if the problem is as described, then torching and splitting the arm would be among the only viable solutions, albeit an ugly one...
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-Marcello Canitano
www.SilverHorseRacing.com
Thanks to all who have responded. Just got back from racing in Homestead - I'm involved with a new series - American GT Challenge. Anyway, to review, I was able to get all of the rear suspension bolts (except the shock mounts-but that is another story that is already done)apart and removed in the fashion in which they were designed. If you look inside the bushing sleeves, there are several "points" that the bolt rides on inside the bushing, ostensibly to prevent the bolt from rusting to the sleeve. I have already used a drift punch (considerably more beefy than a center punch) and BFH (3 lb hand sledge) to no avail - and I mean it didn't budge. I will revert to plans B and C as mentioned in several of the other posts, and will update upon execution of said plans.