Shock to Lower control arm bolt stuck

thebigslide

Registered User
I am trying to swap out my front shocks for illumina IIs and have run into a little problem. On both of the strut to lower control arm joints, the bolt has siezed to the inner shell of the bushing and it won't come out. They'll be replaced, but they're not coming out.

I 1) wailed on it with an air hammer for 10 minutes.
2) soaked it with moovit and assorted other penetrants and let it sit overnight, repeating every night for 4 nights and repeating step 1 in between soakings

3) cut off the washer with 6 strokes of a cutoff wheel, put a socket on it and tried breaking it with a) a 4' breaker bar and b) a 3/4dr impact wrench (the bushing just flexes and the bolt is still stuck)

4) torched it until the bushing started bubbling and beat it with a sledge hammer

The problem is that the lower control arm has enough movement from the rear bushings that when I whack the bolt, the whole assembly moves. I'm at the point with this thing that I want to pull the LCA off and put the whole works in a hydraulic press and press the bolt out, but I don't want to mess up my alignment.

Any suggestions?
 
Maybe press out the bolt using a large C-clamp and spacers? I didn't have any trouble with the older style of bushing (89, 90?).
 
I have had similar problems with other cars.
My suggestion is to mark the position of the cam bolt that connect the LCA to the frame and remove the entire control arm off of the car.
It will be mush easier to work on.
If you have a replacement bolt I would cut off the bolt where it connects to the shock mount and remove the shock.
From there you could press out and replace the bushing and bolt.
If you want to save the bolt then cut off the lower ears of the shock and press the bolt and bushing out of the LCA.
From there you can cut the bushing off of the sleeve and then cut the sleeve off of the bolt.
If it's that frozen it may be wise to just replace both the bolt and bushing.
 
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