After some researching, it looks like a few others had this same problem. I'm attempting to remove the front lower control arms and found that each rear bolt is rusted to the inner bushing sleeve and stuck fast. I've tried multiple applications of heat to the threaded end of the bolt sticking under the car, pb blaster and harsh language but they just wont move. There has to be another option here, I'm looking for some advice from others who've been down this path.

Thanks!

 

Impact gun.

 

Floor jack, breaker bar and a buddy on the front end.

 

Obe1,

Impact gun on the bolt itself from above? Doesn't seem to be any room
Or are you suggesting tightening and loosening the nut to see if it helps break free? I forgot to mention, the nut came off with no problem. The bolt is rusted to the inner sleeve of the bushing..

 

I had that happen with my panhard rod brace. I used the rod to wiggle and wiggle and eventually the rod broke before the bolt came loose. Had to have a shop take it off with a plasma cutter.

 

I had the same problem that you are having except I was lucky and it was only on one side, the passanger side. If you are talking about the bolt that runs vertical. I was replacing my bushings and that bastard took me 4 hours of beating and lots of foul language to get out. I took a mini sledge and started hitting as hard as I could. I finally got it to be flush with the lower control arm and it still would not come out. I then had to have my father hold a punch with vise grips while I continued to beat on it. Like I said 4 hrs later it finally came out and luckly I was able to reuse the bolt. Just make sure you put a nut at the end so that you don't damage the threads to badly. Good luck

 

I'd be happy if I could just get it to move!!! Plus both sides look to have the same problem, so of course, I have to do this all over again on the passenger side..


Its day four of this fiasco... I'm thinking of stopping by harbor freight tonight and grabbing an air chisel gun...

 

You may want to try this trick, I used it last weekend on rusted 40year old brake line and it worked like a champ. First, heat up the bolt, find a birthday candle and melt the wax in between the bolt and sleeve. Any candle will work but those are easier to handle. Try it and let us know how it goes.
Doug

 

I just broke mine free, and put the new bushings in last friday. Honestly isnt that hard. Just a lot of whacks with the sledge hammer. They came out screaming and kicking. But they came out.

 

I'm too tired to even complain about this properly...

I'm gonna go jack the car up higher so I can get a better swing on the bolt...
Actually, first I'm going to have a beer.. then jack up the car... then swing away...

 

Yeah I almost gave up on the drivers side(first side done) But I kept putting my finger nail inbetween the bolt head and the kmember, every 20-30 swings the bolt moved up a little bit. So I kept going... finally a few hundred swings later, one bolt was out.



Might wanna go ahead and order new bolts while you're taking the time to remove the old ones.

 

Hundreds of swings, both sides, bolt heads are still up tight against the top of the control arm mount.

Spraying it with PB blaster isnt doing anything, it just dribbles off the side, doesnt penetrate into the problem area.

What size sledge are you using? I'm using my 5 lb maul, wondering if bigger would be better in this case.

 

8LB Brute force and stupiditiy... it will start moving. Quit giving up so fast. It took a good solid 30 minutes of beating the ever living **** out of it (per side) to get it to even start moving.

Of course this was after a week (yes a full 7 days) of soaking in PB blaster.

 

Oh, Im not giving up... It's just been 5 days of effort... I'll get it, just irked at GM for missing a corrosion issue like this..

And a quick list of whats going in:

Bilstein HDs all around

Strano's 135 mm hollow sway bar (mine was cracked)

Moog ball joints upper and lower

Moog upper bushings

1le lower control arm bushings

moog steering linkage outer tie rods..

and plenty of anti-seize

 

Are they at least broken loose so you can move the bolt back and forth in the holes?

Mine were frozen so bad, I couldnt even do this. Finally after about 15 minutes of hitting the bolts back and forth I then could move the bolt. After that it was just a few hundred more swings and the bolts came right out.