Hey guys,

I am in the middle of trying to get my trailing arm/control arm separated but I am having a little trouble...the bolt that goes through the bushing that holds the trailing arm and control arm seems to be rusted to the bushing and if I turn it more i know it will break (the head barely turns with a LOT of force but the other end doesnt turn at all).

With that said, I am guessing im going to have to cut the bolt from between the control arm and the bushing if it breaks. The thing is, I am not sure which sawzall i need for this job.

I see that there are $110 heavy duty ones and there are $50 regular ones. Does anyone have experience in doin this and knows what type i need to get? I know i need to get some good blades, I just dont know if it matters which sawzall I get.

Any help is appreciated!

 

I had to cut my lowerball joint bolt a little bit ago cuz it was stuck and I just used a regular sawzall and it cut it no problem, took a minute.. but the bolt was stuck in the lowercontrol arm so bad I ended up just getting a new lca instead of trying to mess around drilling it out.

 

you don't need anything crazy expensive or heavy duty, i have a cheap Tool Shop sawzall as well as an expensive DeWalt one, and they both work just as well. just make sure to get some good blades for hard metal (14 TPI or something around there) and go to work. just make sure to attach the blade good, and that the blade doesnt slip and hit something because once you bend them, they never work the same again, even if you straiten it out.

good luck!

 

What this guy said, definitely be careful not to bounce the blade off anything else because every time you do, the blade will be done... I went through about 7 blades on the same bolt you are having trouble with...

The sawzall is the easy part though, you still have to get the rest of the bolt out of the hub unless you are replacing everything... I had to drill a bit of it out before I could turn it slowly but surely with a pair of vice grips... It was miserable...

 

Thanks for the info! How long did it take you to cut that bolt? Im thinking of using some cutting oil so the blades will last a little longer (it helped when i had to drill a bolt out a while ago but even if it took 7 that would be fine for me).

I think if i have to cut it out, once i cut through, i can just take the trailing arm to my neighbors shop, torch it, then pull it out with a vice grips since thats where the rest of the bolt will be stuck.

Ill probably just get a middle of the road sawzall now. Thanks again!

 

It took me about 30 mins to cut the bolt out, you don't have a lot of room to work with down there... It took me about 2 hours though to get the rest of the bolt out of the hub... I am so glad that is over...