Irs subframe support removal???

[MarkVIII93]

I bought the brackets a while ago and I havent been able to get these sobs off. To be more clear as to what these are. Its a bracket that connects to the underbody of the car via two bolts and connects to the irs subframe via one big B1tch bolt that wont break loose lol. I talked to a dealer tech friend and he said that they used to take a hole saw and cut the sheet metal with the rear lower seat removed to access the stationary nut on the frame of the car in order to heat it up and break the bolt loose. I've tried using a huge pipe on the end of a ratchet and also an impact but to no avail. Any help? tips?

 

[kustomizingkid]

The main tip I can give you is don't break the nut lose inside the frame or you're done.

 

[driller]

Go loaded for bear, you're in for a battle.

I used a hole saw and cut a hole in the side of the box frame down low where the nut would be. I think it was 1-1/2" diameter.

That allowed access to spray well with PB blaster and get a set of craftsman locking pliers on the nut. Then I used a propane mini-torch with a pencil tip to heat the nut real good in between the jaws of the pliers. It's a trick doing all that thru a 1-1/2" hole. I did NOT use an impact wrench as it would jar the pliers loose, but a good 6 point socket, snap-on breaker bar and a cheater pipe finally broke them loose.

One side was so bad the bolt would not come down through the bushing sleeve after the nut was off. That caused me to buy new sub-frame bushings and use a muffler cutting tool to chop up the bushing into pieces to finally extract the bushing and bolt. I only had to do that to one side though. The other side came out after the nut was finally loosened.

I used lock-tite on the new bolts and nuts and plugged the sawhole with an electrical box plug and body sealant.

 

[MarkVIII93]

Its a michigan car so the bolts are definitely in there pretty good lol. I never thought to drill on the underside. Thanks for the tip. Im going to try this when I do the rear hub swap. Im just so scared to break the bolt. Or break the nut off.

 

[BAD97LSC]

like driller said, its better to take the rear wheels off and use a hole saw bit right above where the bolt goes up into the frame, two things will happen, either the head will bust off the bolt, happens alot, or the boxed in nut inside the frame will break loose, dont worry about cutting a hole in the side of the frame, you can easily weld it back in, even in rust free cars like the ones i part down here in florida sometimes those bolts can be a nightmare. cut a hole, soak the piss out of it with pb blaster and then try breaking loose again.

 

[MarkVIII93]

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the help. I might as well not have brackets there. Mine are just little pieces of rust.

 

[BAD97LSC]

i have those brackets in stock in my shop, i keep em when i tear a mark down just for guys like you! i know what northern weather does to the bottom of the marks, lived in massachusetts from 77 to 03 i'm no stranger to rust, we just took off a pair of them brackets today off a 97 in my shop!

 

[Kevin]

Out of curiosity, what exactly do those brackets do? Would there be any issue with not replacing them, as once rusted away they don't seem to change anything by being fixed?

I've replaced one on my Cougar years ago, had to chop a hole in there as well to get at the the nut. Couldn't notice any change in handling after the fix.

 

[BAD97LSC]

they hold the rear sub frame cradle to the car lol, not replacing them would be like taking 3 lug nuts off each of your wheels and going down the highway.