broken rear shock bolt, any ideas?
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broken rear shock bolt, any ideas?
Went to put on my Progress rear sway today, didn't get far. As you may know, you have to take the rear shocks out and turn them 180 degrees so that the nut welded to the shock faces towards the back.
The bolt was rusted solid to the metal sleeve which runs through the bushing in the lower control arm. I doused it with penetrating oil, applied some pressure and the head promptly snapped off leaving the seized bolt in place. Since the nut is welded to the shock, you can simply drive out the broken bolt. The only thing I can come up with is to cut my shock off the LCA with a sawz-all, but I'd rather not have to buy a brank new KYB AGX because of a broken bolt. The other side is also seized, no idea how I'm going to get that one out. Any help if greatly appreciated.
The bolt was rusted solid to the metal sleeve which runs through the bushing in the lower control arm. I doused it with penetrating oil, applied some pressure and the head promptly snapped off leaving the seized bolt in place. Since the nut is welded to the shock, you can simply drive out the broken bolt. The only thing I can come up with is to cut my shock off the LCA with a sawz-all, but I'd rather not have to buy a brank new KYB AGX because of a broken bolt. The other side is also seized, no idea how I'm going to get that one out. Any help if greatly appreciated.
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Re: broken rear shock bolt, any ideas? (94CivicSi)
i would try to cut just the nut off of the shock. then it might be possible to drive out the rest of the broken bolt or move the shock out of the way and remove the entire lca and either remove the broken bolt or replace the lca.
#5
Re: broken rear shock bolt, any ideas? (LSCivicHB)
Sorry to lazy to retype so i copied and pasted from my other post
Air tools will not always work. Ii tryed everything on mine torch, impact wrench hand tools ect.....This is how i did it but you will ruin your shock. Unbolt the rear LCAs and the upper shock mounts and remove the spring/shock assembly and LCA together as a whole. Put the shock in a vice or step on it, then take a hand held grinder with a cutting wheel and cut the head off the bolt and then the D bracket on the shock. If the bolt is froze to the metal sleave inside the rubber bushing and not the shock nut you will need new shock to LCA bushings. I bought mine form nipponpower.com for like $32.00 for ES bushings. Nowyou need to tear the rubber away from the metal sleave, i did this by rotating the lca back and forth untill the rubber gave way. Once you've accomplished that you will be able to pull the LCA away from the shock. Now you will have a metal sleave that goes around the bushing that needs to come out in order to install the new bushings. Since i don't have a press to press them out i used a hacksaw blade and cut a slit all the way through the metal sleave. That relieved the pressure and i was then able to tap them out with a screwdriver and hammer. Next install the bushing per instructions and mount to car.
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Re: broken rear shock bolt, any ideas? (94CivicSi)
The bolt was rusted solid to the metal sleeve which runs through the bushing in the lower control arm. I doused it with penetrating oil, applied some pressure and the head promptly snapped off leaving the seized bolt in place. Since the nut is welded to the shock, you can simply drive out the broken bolt. The only thing I can come up with is to cut my shock off the LCA with a sawz-all, but I'd rather not have to buy a brank new KYB AGX because of a broken bolt. The other side is also seized, no idea how I'm going to get that one out. Any help if greatly appreciated.
I took the whole lower control arm and shock to a machine shop, and they carefully drilled out the old bolt. I have no idea how to remove it and save the bolt.
As a note, if you have to ruin the nut, you COULD just use a self locking nut on the fork if you cut the nut off.
I know it's a pain to lose bolts/nuts like this, but nobody has a permanent solution to this problem that I've seen.
Shawn
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Re: broken rear shock bolt, any ideas? (shawnhayes)
Here's what we do... Cut the bolt off the shock(just the bolt), then cut between the shock & the LCA on both sides with a Sawsall, drop out the lower control arm, order a new bushing and take the LCA to a machine shop and have them press out the old one and press in a new one... When you reinstall the bolt, use some type of anti-sieze compound. Hope that helps
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Re: broken rear shock bolt, any ideas? (WOLFPACK)
you guys rock! I've already got the ES bushings, just haven't put them in. I think I'll order 2 used LCA from a salvage yard, have the old bushings pressed out, and then I can just do the cutting and swapping in one step, no downtime. I'll try and get a picture or two of the process for others to reference down the road. Sounds lie this is FAR too common a problem.
Thanks again,
Nate
Thanks again,
Nate
#9
Re: broken rear shock bolt, any ideas? (94CivicSi)
The same thing happened on my wifes 93 Accord, I was replacing the struts and I had to cut the nut on the strut, but the bolt was fused with the metal sleeve inside the bushing. Eventually I had to cut the bushing out and replace it. Try doing that in a garage with the car on jack stands believe me it sucks. Good Luck though
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