strut rod bushings... PITA!

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wood_e

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So I'm in the middle of replacing my UCAs, LCAs, outer tie rod ends, and converting to a tokico coil setup.

Every nut has come off without a hitch except my strut rod ones.

I got the LCA off, but it took me an hour of slowly heating up the strut rod nut and cranking on my breaker bar until I couldn't do it anymore.

Now that I have the one at the control arm off, what's the best way to tackle the front bolt?

I know there's a notch near the control arm for a wrench to keep it from turning - I used a large crescent for the control arm...

Any tips and tricks before I go out there this evening?
 
wood_e said:
So I'm in the middle of replacing my UCAs, LCAs, outer tie rod ends, and converting to a tokico coil setup.

Every nut has come off without a hitch except my strut rod ones.

I got the LCA off, but it took me an hour of slowly heating up the strut rod nut and cranking on my breaker bar until I couldn't do it anymore.

Now that I have the one at the control arm off, what's the best way to tackle the front bolt?

I know there's a notch near the control arm for a wrench to keep it from turning - I used a large crescent for the control arm...

Any tips and tricks before I go out there this evening?
Click to expand...

PB Blaster or equivalent?
 
I went crazy with PB Blaster on the nut at the control arm - still needed massive amounts of heat from a MAP gas torch.

I sprayed some on the front nut too. Sucks that i don't have too much room there!
 
Heat, and LOTS of torque.

Get a johnson bar on it, and use the handle from your jack to extend it - then stand on it. And bounce a little bit.

Then maybe it'll start to turn.

Those are on there rediculously tight.
 
I feel for you mang. I had to put a huge wrench on it and a 4' breaker bar. Car was 6' in the air on a lift and as I was removing the drivers side I swear the tail of the car went in the air. It took all my strength to remove the damn things and I am a big dude.
Next time I will just pay someone. lol!
 
wood_e said:
I went crazy with PB Blaster on the nut at the control arm - still needed massive amounts of heat from a MAP gas torch.

I sprayed some on the front nut too. Sucks that i don't have too much room there!
Click to expand...

The car I'm working on is a 'project car', so my situation might be a bit different.

However,

After pulling off the wheels and rotors, I sprayed every bolt and nut I could see on the front suspension with PB blaster. Every day for a week. The LCA's have been replaced at one point, but the car has 180 k on it, and the strut bolts were frozen with rust when I started.

After a week, the nuts looked like they were brand new. No rust, no nothing. I used a 3/8 inch ratchet with a small breaker bar (the handle from the factory jack) and both sides turned right off.

In fact, I have not had one bolt on the front suspension that has given me a problem using a rather modest set of hand tools.

This method will not work if you're doing the job 'right now', as I don't think the penetrant has enough time to work on really rusted bolts.

But I can tell you this, I had my DD on the ramps this past weekend, spraying PB Blaster on the bolts on that car.

Can't hurt. ;)
 
Kstills said:
The car I'm working on is a 'project car', so my situation might be a bit different.

However,

After pulling off the wheels and rotors, I sprayed every bolt and nut I could see on the front suspension with PB blaster. Every day for a week. The LCA's have been replaced at one point, but the car has 180 k on it, and the strut bolts were frozen with rust when I started.

After a week, the nuts looked like they were brand new. No rust, no nothing. I used a 3/8 inch ratchet with a small breaker bar (the handle from the factory jack) and both sides turned right off.

In fact, I have not had one bolt on the front suspension that has given me a problem using a rather modest set of hand tools.

This method will not work if you're doing the job 'right now', as I don't think the penetrant has enough time to work on really rusted bolts.

But I can tell you this, I had my DD on the ramps this past weekend, spraying PB Blaster on the bolts on that car.

Can't hurt. ;)
Click to expand...

And of course Air tools with a lot of power behind them dont hurt either!!! :)
 
I did mine and I was worried about how hard it was going to be to get the nuts off seeing as my car is over 200k and spent it's life in NJ salted winters.

Gave it a few shots of Kroil and used my Milwaukee 24 volt cordless impact gun and they came right off.

Kroil seems to loosen the most miserable bolts I have worked with almost all the time :D
 
whats with everyone and hand tools lol??????
i have a deep impact socket specifically for the nut to arm side of the strut rod, all you need is an impact gun and socket, i believe its 25 mm or whatever it is and buzz it right off, by hand its a nightmare because its a lock nut.
 
I guess my impact gun isn't all that great...

I tried it on the nut at the arm and it didn't do jack. Maybe I should shop around for a more powerful one.
 
Gravity can be your friend. To help bust the nut try using a deep well socket and breaker bar on the outer nut and a big crescent on the flat and use your floor jack to supply the force to "break" the nut loose.
 
I did this with the car on jack-stands.

Put a long adjustable wrench on it, lay on your side and stomp on the end of the wrench. The wrench may come loose each time you kick at it, but little by little, you'll loosen it up. You'll eventually get the nut loose enough where you can turn the wrench by hand with relative ease.

Once you've got the thing loose, I highly advise you to apply a wire brush and PB blaster to the threads of the strut rod before you tighten everything back up.
 
I did mine on stands as well. But I had a 270lb friend on the cheater bar and 2 of us on the wrench. Got drug around a bit but they came loose. When I do the black 93 it will be with air tools, sick of ratchets.
 
On Kirk's car the nut broke loose just fine... but it came off the whole way like I was just breaking it loose every time... took 15min. to do both sides with a break in the middle...
 
I've got a full set of wrenches up to 30mm (very, very handy on the front end of these cars) and I used them for both of my cars when I did the control arms. Maybe it's just my cars but every nut and bolt came off relatively easily. I had to double wrench some of them for extra leverage but I guess I was just lucky.
 
You're lucky not to have salty winters!

Got my new lower control arm in albeit there was some grease that made it into the hole to attach it to the knuckle, so I need to clean it all out and put it back in. The ball joint is just spinning...

I figure with the LCA in the adjustable wrench will have something to hit against for cranking down on the front strut rod nut.

I got the UCA bolts off pretty easily by putting a box end on the nut and cranking down on the bolt head in the fender. The box end never came off and the nuts came off with ease.
 
That's true....I don't have salty winters, but my 98 came from northern VA and has spent the last 5 years in Virginia Beach, VA and Charleston, SC area, very near to the ocean. Also, my 97 has been here in Charleston area all of it's life, and the previous owner didn't take very good care of it at all. I rescued it from him with a broken ball joint. The wheels were seized to the rotors but most of the front end bolts came out without too much trouble. Thank God! haha.
 
A little MAPP Gas heat and a big breaker bar got'r off.

I hope the other side cooperates as easily.

Note to others - break them free with your old LCAs on. It makes life easier.
 
kustomizingkid said:
I had to do Ford Nuts by hand... what a PITA..... I have the sockets at home...
Click to expand...

What size socket is that on the front? Cant seem to get a good measurment and I know I dont have a socket big enough. I have a 1/2" Ingresoll impact so I hope it does the job.
 
I can check when I get home... I believe it was 32mm or something close to that.
 
I used a long handled box end wrench and a 4 pound hammer, sideways, until it broke loose-that'll persuade almost any nut or bolt if you have any room to work.
 
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