When/if you ever get them out you'll find the bolts are actually bent, That happens when they're torqued properly and it does make them hard to get out.
Try putting a floor jack under the ball joint and put some upwards pressure on it, then hit the bolt with the air hammer again.
jeeze, you guys need to wash your cars better or something.
I pulled my front struts to cut the springs on Saturday. No problems at all, '01 with 160K. Didn't use any PB/WD/etc, just some used motor oil. Ryan's car was actually more of a PITA than mine was.
Heat gun isn't going to do much of anything. You need some real heat to penetrate more than the surface of the metal, Propane or MAP (be careful with MAP though).
Make sure you're not chiseling ahead of the bolt, that will just make it more pissed at you. Just knock on the head of the bolt, all you want to do is shake the rust loose, not distort the bolt or pinch point. And impact works on a similar principal.
If the bolt is really seized some times you can tighten it first to break it loose, then try backing it out (old bumper bolts work this way all the time).
I'm about to get back into it using all your advice. If all else fails would it be a good or bad idea to grind off the end of the bolt, whip out the drill set and just drill it out like that? I've got all the replacement hardware I just don't want to cause anymore damage than I already have
If you have hands that could do open heart surgery, I guess you could drill it
But you'll need good bits (HSS) and still some way to get the bolt out (extractor).
You might just get lucky and sitting this long the PB has worked it's magic and it'll jump out at you, fingers crossed. But I'd try some good heat first before cutting anything or drilling.
FORDSVTPARTS wrote:Just did shocks, struts and springs in my SVT yesterday and we did the suspension and a rear bar in Pappys 100k plus beater as well and got through without a single broken bolt and very little swearing
You guys suck. I broke one of my rear sub-frame bolts installing mine today... was not fin trying to fix it either. Let me just say, I have to do some later patching with my welder.
FORDSVTPARTS wrote:Just did shocks, struts and springs in my SVT yesterday and we did the suspension and a rear bar in Pappys 100k plus beater as well and got through without a single broken bolt and very little swearing
You guys suck. I broke one of my rear sub-frame bolts installing mine today... was not fin trying to fix it either. Let me just say, I have to do some later patching with my welder.
Yeah, not fun. That'll teach you to run coilovers!
2008 Bone Stock VW GLI
2004 Sonic Blue SVT ZX3, #1593 of 1978 Born 4/8/04
Stage 2 ported TB, Semi-custom Borla center exit, FSWerks CAI, FS front strut bar, suspension by FR/Multimatic gone, but not forgotten
I love you all!! Holy hell that was harder than it should have been. So, now that my ball joints are thouroghly torched, what's the best way for me to get my moogs in there? Should I take the lca out to work on the rivets or can I just do it in place? I'm guessing I just have to grind one side down and punch it out the other side or is there an easier way? And once again, THANK YOU ALL!!!
This getting beyond rediculous. After getting the knuckles out I got all the strut hardware moved over to the eibachs and then got to work on replacing the ball joints. Ground out the bottom and tried to pound them through but they wouldn't budge, so going off someone elses advice I ground the tops out as well and then drilled both sides to allow the ball joint to slide out. Bfh, heat and pb blaster did nothing. Again, they wouldn't budge. Well I said f that. And called up o'reillys and ordered a new set of lca's. Now I'm sitting here pissed off because the inside bolt on both lca's refuses to budge. I don't understand this...
You could try using the weight of the car, have to be damn careful but it might work. Get the bar good and tight and make sure it can slide on the floor some, then slowly let the jack down. I assume you're working off jack stands so go up as high as you can with the jack, leaving both jack stands in place.
Just don't let all the weight of the car sit on the bar. If it slips you'll loose toes.
For that matter a few 2x4's or a cinder block could work just as well.
Bolts move so easy..