This car came from back east and I am afraid that the suspension bolts maybe pretty rusted, they look ok from the outside but its inside the bushings that I am afraid of. I have blasted them with PB blaster.

I have no access to air tools, so I was wondering if an electric impact gun would be sufficient, as I am out in the boons and dont want to break off any of the bolts.


So is an electric impact a good option or should I do it by hand and hope nothing breaks?

 

I use a Milwaukee cordless impact for most of my work, and it's always done fine. You may still break the bushing if it's bad; so you might want to come up with a backup plan if you don't have another car or would have trouble getting parts.

 

use a breaker bar!!!

first
put pb blast or something else on

then
TIGHTEN BOLT SLIGHTLY....usually this will break the rust free

then
LOOSEN BOLT with a BIG BREAKER BAR!!

don't use impact until it is broken loose....

i have yet to have a broken bolt!!! knock knock

 

I always use my impact for loosening bolts, and have broken far less than with the breaker bar. The breaker bar puts so much torque on the bolts to break it loose with constant pressure, while the impact does it in short bursts wich stresses the metal much less.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AutoXer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I use a Milwaukee cordless impact for most of my work, and it's always done fine. You may still break the bushing if it's bad; so you might want to come up with a backup plan if you don't have another car or would have trouble getting parts.

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I do have a backup car or 2 or 3, and I have all new hardwrae to go in, I just want to avoid having to figure a way to get the busted bolts out.

 

I snapped off 2 bolts using the breaker bar + heat + pb blaster method
BUT, I found out with later bolts that a just using heat + pb blaster + rinse and repeat works very nice! I soaked the bolt in pb blaster, and then used a regular hand torch on it for maybe 3 minutes straight, then pb blaster again, then torch again. After doing it 3(?) times, I could break all bolts loose without resorting to breaker bar. Never had an impact gun.
edit: I wish I had splurged for a decent set of vice grips though. I probably would've saved myself the $90 a garage charged me to take out my broken bolts.