biggjerryc

99 civic ex. i got my front springs on no problem. found a broken bolt on the bottom of my rear strut. went to remove the other side so i could put a new bolt in and that side broke. so now theres the center of a bolt holding my strut in place and i cant get it out. its like stuck to the rubber bushing anyone know how i can get the rest of the bolt out? if hammered and hammered and hammered some more. it wont budge

biggjerryc

anyone? ive tried an air hammer. a big hammer. an even bigger hammer. nothing will take it out. need my car by 3 today too so. anyone any sweet ideas let me know

itsmejto

Bin there !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you really need to remove the whole shock assembly and lower trailing arm from the car.
But that may find more bolts to break so it's your choice what happens next.

#1. buy a big fire extinguisher or get a water hose ready cos its dangerous.

A good sharp point blow torch, I used a MAP yellow with a suoper fine tip.
Burn the old rubber till its loose on the inner sleeve steel bush.
This is dirty, smelly, lots of black smoke and danger of setting fire to other bits.

But it works, then take a sawzal recipricationg saw with a short, good quality blade, you will need a few coz those bolts are high tensile heat treated and will wear the teeth off the blades faster than a new yorker can blow his horn after the light turns green.
Slide the whole thing as far from the welded nut on the shock as you can get it, then cut the bolt leaving as much bolt as you can sticking out the nut on the shock.
Then slide it back all the other way and cut it again. You can then get the shock off.

I just cut my shock brackets as I was replacing the old shocks anways.
You should then clean up all the burned rubber coz it tracks everywhere and you'll end up with black footprints on your carpets if you have to take a leek in a hurry.

If you are re-using your shock you will need to soak the sub of the bolt with mucho "KROIL" or other good penatrating oil, leave it to soak overnight and spray it as many times as you wake up. Removal with a gOOD pair of locking vise grips is next.

Then you'll need to replace the burned up bushing with a good urethene replacement ( 3 parts) two plastic, one steel liner) Firstly though you need to remove the steel liner left from the old rubber bushing. Cut it gently with the saw till it splits, be carefull not to saw into the lower arm itself, than take two big sockets the right size and press it out in a vice, it'll come out as its split.

GOOD LUCK.

BTW, DON'T USE HARDWARE STORE BOLTS, GO TO YOUR HONDA DEALER AS THESE ARE SPECIAL HEAT TREATED BOLTS.
Also put a dab of anti-sieze on the threads.

itsmejto

As a temp fix you can get metric grade 8.8 from lowes or home depot etc, they are 10mm x 1.25 pitch x 70mm long. But don't bang the car arround til you get the correct bolts back in.
You should be able to get the bushings at a good car parts store.
Don't try to use the rubber/steel honda type unless you have a hydraulic press.

oh, safety when your burning the old bush, try to get as many bits of flat metal plates over anything you don't want to burn up.




Modified by itsmejto at 11:31 AM 8/9/2008

94EG8

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by biggjerryc &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">99 civic ex. i got my front springs on no problem. found a broken bolt on the bottom of my rear strut. went to remove the other side so i could put a new bolt in and that side broke. so now theres the center of a bolt holding my strut in place and i cant get it out. its like stuck to the rubber bushing anyone know how i can get the rest of the bolt out? if hammered and hammered and hammered some more. it wont budge</TD></TR></TABLE>

I think i know what your talking about, take a hacksaw, get it between the LCA and the strut and cut the bolt on one or both sides if neccessary, remove strut. Then go replace the bushing, trying to remove bolts that seize in rubber bushings is near impossible, it really doesn't matter what you hit the bolt with, the rubber just absorbs the shock. Your still probably going to have a hard time removing and installing the new bushing as well.

itsmejto

If it makes you feel any better, I broke 7 bolts when I did my suspension upgrades.

itsmejto

They don't call em "breaker bars" for nothing.

biggjerryc

i started drilling through the bolt haha. worked for a little while until the bits were just about flat on the tips. i need carbide bits or whatever. i guess ill have to torch it

biggjerryc

i got the strut off and all. i can clearly get to the rubber bushing. how much heat will i need to burn the bushing out? and how much do bushings cost

itsmejto

Go rent a sawzall, you'll need it, a hacksaw isn't good enough, it'll take you all afternoon to cut em that way.

itsmejto

bushings are only a few bucks, maybe 15 or so if you just buy one set.

If you have the strut off the arm, you only need to grab whats left of the buching with vise grips and hope it breaks loose in the threads of the shock not.

If it's still atatched, you might bend the shock bracket some and hope it doesn;t break when you straighten it out.

Otherwise a regular blow torch will do it, give it 10 mins, set it on fire well, both sides, the rubber will burn and soften and it will fall apart except for the bolt rusted into the inner sleeve.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...sting

biggjerryc

thanks, i already have a saws-all to use. when i called the parts store then wanted 30 per bushing per side... i think they were looking at the wrong part, what is the actual name of the bushing needed.... So any blow torch from home depot will do the trick? Thanks for all the help so far

itsmejto

Its called the rear lower shock absorber bushing.
Get some fine tooth blades while youre at lowes, you are going to need a few.
Don't buy the same bushing as you hacked out, you will never get it to fit without a press. it needs 10 tons of pressure to force em in, the eurethene ones just slide in by hand.

itsmejto

you should be able to find the correct bushing as its a popular size but if you can't, as a temp fix you can use 3 upper rubber shock buchings as they are the same diameter and will fit the hole but you will need an inner steel liner tube and new bolts while your at home depot.
they say 8.8 on the heads.

biggjerryc

alright problem solved. i took the inner sleave out and improvised a little. I slid a motor mount for a dsm in its place and it works great!!! Never had lowering springs give me this many problems