Hi folks. I am frusterated beyond all belief. I have threatened numerous times to drop a match in the fuel tank of this thing, and still no progress. I have been trying to change my control arm bushings for the last 2 days. SLOOOOOWLY I am making progress. I only have one more bolt to get out, but it is the worst one. The bolts have all seized to the inside sleeve of the bushing, making it VERY hard to get out. I have cut one out, and beat, pryed, and twisted the other 7 out. This last one is the driver side upper control arm, the rear bolt. I can spin the bolt inside the pin, but can't for the life of me get it to back out at all. There really isn't a spot for a sawzall, and the one we own is a pile anyway... Anybody have any ideas that has been down this road before? Our torch is out of commission currently, and I've used up the last of the PB blaster, only WD-40 left.

All help is certainly appreciated, and sorry for the ranting... part of this post was a little vent also. I haven't been this mad at this truck for a LONG time....

 

Can you access the side with the welded on nut and use another bolt to press the stubborn one out?
I found that soapy water usually helped with bolts tuck in rubber bushings, especially combined with the heat of a hair drier.
If you get the bolt out far enough to slide in a wrench between the bolt head and the part the bolt is in you can usually pry the wrench away with a screwdriver and keep the bolt pulling out straight.
HTH

AlpineRAM

 

Oh Boy.....do I know what your going through(check my sig).I had the same problem.What I used was a air chisel and use the the punch attachment.Place it in the centre of the bolt and start hammering.Even grind the bolt head off for easy access for the air tool...This was the only way to get these bolts out...

 

All is well now. I ended up prying the mounting bracket (frame-side) over a bit, then using a cutoff wheel and cutting part of the bolt out, then I pried the bushing over as far as I could and fired up the hot wrench. I carefully put 6 sheets of tinfoil around and especially above the area I was working as there is a wiring harness that runs near there, not to mention the possibilities of grease catching fire. Finally I was able to cut the bolt out, bend the bracket back to it's original shape and install my last 2 bushings. What a pain! Thanks for the ideas guys. I sure with I had a good air hammer... and more line pressure on the air compresser!

 

FWIW, in the future, I got severely un inclined to change my control arm bushings after i did the first arm , so i took it to the shop , and let them do it. I asked later how he got those uppe rear bolts out , because i had hit them as hard as i could with a 16 lb sledge hammer, all to no avail. What the guy at the shop said to do , was get the torch on the HEAD of the bolt , and MELT it off , not cut it , MELT it , then drive it out the opposite way it would normally go , with the air hammer.