QUESTION is, I read up and its seems like if all else fails (see below) get new LCAs. Ok, thats possible, but wouldnt I have to mess w/ the lower hub bolt too - the other one notorious for snapping? Looks like it, just want some verification. B/c if those snap too, its gonna be no fun, considering we can't even get the one bolt out.



Yes, yet another snapped LCA bolt to the suspension thread. The VERY LAST bolt my buddy and I had to take off too, the one that holds the shock to the LCA. And everything else was done in less than 2 hours, no problems! Go figure.

Anyway, we:

1. PB blaster'd it
2. Torched it
3. Puller
4. Sledge hammer
5. Drilled, broke 4 bits and that sonab$%#! still didnt budge at all.

So we decided to sazwall the shock mount off, did that, repeated steps #1-5 nothing budged. We gave up after 4 hours of this junk. So its not even driveable now to get a shop to get this punk out.


I'm gonna give it a 2 day PB bath and pick up a 3/8" cobalt drill bit that will hopefully get all the way through. I dont have a press so I cant get new bushings in there easily. I think I've read up on everything else but if there is any "new" info on getting this bolt out let me know. Thanks, I've gotta spend $$$ driving the truck around till I get this fixed!

 

i took a drill bit and air hammer and grinder, cutter, prybar and a few others to mine. just keep workin it mine took me almost 3 days to do, lol.

 

Yeah, I think I'll just have a lil date with that bolt every night until I kick her out. She just doesnt want to leave yet I guess...

So what made it give on yours? What size drill bit did you use (3/8" sound good? - its already drilled out pretty deep with a smaller bit, we just got to a point where the drill bits stopped working and kept breaking...)

thanks

 

ok heres what i did, i first cut off the welded nut on the backside of the strut/shock, then i grinded it down to where there were almost no threads(kinda went into the wall of the shock itself but not too far so i could re use it) then i took the air hammer to it and it wouldnt budge so i tried wd 40 overnight, then the next day i got a 3/8 bit and started to drill the ends off(not all the way through) to where the only piece of the bolt left is in the lca bracket and not through the shock still. then i took the airhammer put a chisel/bolt breaker bit on there and wedged it between the inside wall of the shock and the lca. pounded it to **** to seperate the shock from the lca and then i drilled a little bit more into it and then used a prybar for a few hours after repeating alot of the previously mentioned steps, lol. then it finally budged and then i took off the shock and took a driver and hammer and knocked out the rest of the bolt. its just a pain but if you work it enough it will give eventually, u could just cut the shock into pieces if you got new ones, lol. that would make it much easier too. good luck bud

 

just make sure you don't cut the body of the shock...just the mounting bracket. A gas filled shock could be nasty if pinched.

 

good point, sorry for not sayin that, lol.

 

Thanks yall...yeah, I already cut the shock mount off, so the only thing left in there now is the bolt. Guess I know what I have to do, I'm just looking for those "inspirational" stories to give me some hope with this.


I even have all the rear reassembled with the new springs and shockssince we cut the one shock off,so all that is left is this one stinkin bolt! So close but yet so far...

 

lol, youll get it soon, just keep workin it

 

PB blaster isnt gena do anything so just save it. the bolts prolly seized to the bushing so u'll either have to cut thru the bushing/bolt completely and/or drill a hole the size of the bolt and then snap the head off. i had to do both of those things to get one of my bolts off[:@]


the hole i drilled thru the head of the bolt. notice its about the size of the bolt itself. just start with a small bit and gradually go bigger.

 

I bought a new LCA.