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I was trying to take my rear struts out to fix my sagging problem, and I cant get the bottom bolt of the strut out (the one that attaches it to the lower control arm). Its seized to the sleeve inside the bushing. I can see it spin a slight bit in the welded-on nut, but it wont break loose, even with my Snap-on 1/2" impact. Anybody have an idea? My only idea was to torch out the bushing, but i really dont want to spend any money if I dont have to.

 
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you need to hold them both. Which bolt are you talking about? The one that has two nuts attached to it??

 
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the bolt that holds the bottom of the rear strut to the lower control arm. there's one bolt, it goes through a tab on the control arm, then a bushing on the strut, and then there is a nut welded to the tab on the control arm on the other side of the bushing. its stuck to the metal sleeve inside the bushing. i dont see how you can hold the sleeve, you cant get to it, thats why i said my idea was to burn the bushing out. so any ideas or experience?

 
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oh ok. I understand. You need to jack it up and use a breaker bar. It is 17mm. Go buy a breaker bar or attach something to your ratchet to extend it. This will give you more torque. Hit me up on IM if you want to talk.

 
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ok....here's what you do....

once the bolt is spun all the way

take a flathead screwdriver and stick it inside the welded bolt
so you can hammer the bolt out

 
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No, ive tried a 4 foot breaker bar, and no dice. I also have the top of the like snapon 1/2' impact and that wont break it either.

 
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well you are gonna have to drive it to a shop with a better impact gun or go buy one. have you hit it with wd40 or pblaster?

 
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Yeah, looks like im buring it out, i dont know anyone with a 3/4" impact, nor am i willing to buy one, and there isnt a more powerful 1/2" impact available that i know of, although its doubtful any impact will loosen it, since the bushing is absorbing all the impact instead of allowing it to break free. thanks anyway.

 
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Dayum, I've never seen that happen. Do you have any weight of the car suspended on the lower control arm still? Make sure that anything doing with the suspension is completely free and nothing is holding anything up or it will put weight on the bolt and make it harder to get out.

 
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sound like u need to hit the weights more

a 4foot breaker bar n nothing

 
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are you turning it the right way? hahaha lefty loosey,righty tighty

 
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grab a center punch and stick it inside the welded bolt and hammer away

 
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That sound like one of the ways you can do. I went to a shop to get it cut out. B4 you do that go to Honda and order another bolt. I searched a lot of stores and no one carried that size. What happen was rust got inside and the bolt turned with the bushing. NO impact gun, air gun, breaker bar or grease will work. Burning may works but you risk heating the strut and make it explode.

 
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once the bolt is loose have a friend help you put pressure on the lower control arm wile you pound it out with a flathead screw driver. try using the stock jack in between the arm

 
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I think you cant get a screwdriver in there to pound out the bolt since the LCA is in the way. What I did with my nephews car is unscrew the bolt as far as it would go, then I used a crecent wrench and hammer. Put the crecent wrench on the non threaded shank part of the bolt and hit it with the hammer until it pops out. Also, sometimes unbolting the swaybar endlink can help since it holds up the LCA from dropping fully down. When you remove the endlink, the pressure is relieved off the bolt. Someone correct me if I'm wrong thanks.

 
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Its easy to take it out, instead of pounding it out with a hammer and a punch, just stick a screw driver in there with your left hand and apply pressure to the bolt and than use your socket to turn the bolt out and it'll come right out. I did it all myself without any help, just make sure you have 1 nut left on the top of the strut with slightly threaded on, so it doesn't fall through when you do get that bolt out. Shoudl work just fine.

 
Rep Power: 211

There's another thread I was just reading about this, as I have the same problem on both sides in the rear - He got his out by heating the crap out of the end of the bolt with a torch and then soaking it with pb blaster and then heating it again. He also had a friend with a really decent impact wrench and the combination of the three did the trick.