Bolt frozen onto lower control arm bushing sleeve. Help!

[fudge12]

I've been driving around for about a year and change with a busted front lower passenger control arm. The car wobbles violently on that side while braking; but otherwise drives fine. Today I finally had time to replace it (partially.)

The rear bolt came off rather easy on the control arm, but the front bolt is frozen in with the bushing sleeve and won't budge for (insert bad word here) .

We struck the nut side with a hammer and still no dice. Any ideas?

Gen 1 00 v6

 

[theophile]

PB Blaster and a bigger hammer?

 

[G-RELL]

and some heat

 

[Telco]

PB Blaster. Then try tightening it just a bit. Sometimes if a bolt is locked tight and won't loosen you can put some pressure to tighten it, then it will break loose. I'm not talking trying to spin it, just enough to barely get it to move.

Alternative, get a longer breaker bar.

I'll also throw out that if you have a bolt this tight that you are trying to remove and you have it jacked up and the wheel off be extra careful. Strong force on a jacked up vehicle can cause it to slip off the jack. In addition to a jack stand I normally throw the tire I removed under the car as a final measure of safety. If it ever slips off the jack stand it's not falling off that tire.

 

[fudge12]

The bolt is turning, its just that the whole rubber bushing failed which caused the metal sleeve inside to freeze onto the bolt after a period of time. We tried PB Blaster, heat, shocking with a hammer, etc.. nothing worked. The bolt kept spinning in the rubber with the sleeve frozen onto the bolt threads. As a final resort, we just used a sawzall.

Thanks for the help guys

 

[02LincLS]

I guess its not unheard of having to cut the bolt. Was it one of the camber kit bolts or the stock bolt? Maybe I should have a kit waiting on the bench before I do LCA's

 

[fudge12]

I guess its not unheard of having to cut the bolt. Was it one of the camber kit bolts or the stock bolt? Maybe I should have a kit waiting on the bench before I do LCA's

Stock bolt. It was a PITA to get to the bolt since piece of the arm was in the way. we sawed it off to get a good angle at the bolt.

 

[theophile]

Stock bolt. It was a PITA to get to the bolt since piece of the arm was in the way. we sawed it off to get a good angle at the bolt.

I bet that ball-joint press you can borrow from Autozone would have gotten it out.