johnr

What is the best way to loosen a bolt that will absolutely not budge? I've soaked it with penetrating oil, and worked on it for an hour but there is absolutely no sign that it will ever budge. Would an impact wrench make this easy.
Mine is the upper bolt holding the rear shock on. I would really appreciate any ideas or tips.
Thanks!

Longtime76

It was a real b*tch getting mine off as well. We sprayed it with WD-40, and used breaker bar with extension so I could get foot on it to exert more force. I know an impact wrench would have worked quite well. Is the shock unloaded? If not that could be a problem.

Here is a quote from Tabor about a hard to get off bolt/nut:

"Also, IMHO the bearing should be replaced. Now, this is a pain (~8 hours, at least for me), but I am almost done writing a howto for it.
I should be installing mine tomorrow or the next day. FWIW, a pnumatic impact wrench set to 750ft/lb gets it off in less than 10 seconds!"

750 ft/lb will take just about anything off...

johnr

thanks (I like the hanes manual where it shows a guy with two little wrenches having the time of his life!).

Thaddeus

I, too, had to put on a breaker bar and push it with my leg while laying on my back, while grabbing the underside of the car so I didn't just slide through the filth of the garage floor. It was fun.

Just my usual order of dignity, please, to go. Waiter, check!


Thaddeus

Michael Stephenson

I used a breaker bar and it did not budge.

I used an impact wrench until the wrench overheated and quit working and it did not budge.

I used the breaker bar again and coupled with the little extra adrenaline from my frustration it finally came loose.

Manning

I cannot really offer any empirical advise, as mine came off without much fuss.

I did want to comment to Thaddeus about the filth on his garage floor:

Yuck! Sounds like the floor of the garage at the house I used to rent in Cleveland Heights. Old asphalt floor with so much oil and other filth that the asphalt was kind of melted and would stick to your clothes. I feel for you.

Thaddeus

Actually, that garage floor isn't too bad to walk on. Just some sawdust, a couple of leaves, a drop of oil here or there... etc. But my attitude changes when I have to lay down on it!



Thaddeus

newoldguy

I saw this product advertised on TV on "Crank and Chrome" so went and got a can of it. Stuff is called "PB Blaster", comes in a spray can. It is a catalytic action chemical that breaks down the rust we're all having trouble with. It works great--you really need to try it instead of regular penetrating oil for jobs like this. And, no, I don't work for the company. You can get this stuff at NAPA or Schuck's (Checker).

Rog

Hi,

I have a couple friends who swear by PBBlaster. I've got a couple spray cans myself, and while it seems to work reasonably, I can't say it seems any better than any other run of the mill penetrating oil.

Have you tried heat yet? Mine were snug, but came off when I went to a pair of long combo box-end wrenches. Regular wrenchs and sockets just weren't enough. Sounds like yours is worse.

My experience was much different from you guys' My tops just needed a bit longer wrenches, but the bottoms. Jeez Marie! They sucked. I tried penetrating oil, and mild heating (just a heatgun rather than a torch that close to the tank and fuel lines), my longest (28") breaker bar, and a cheapo harbor freight 1/2" impact wrench rated (probably optimistically, at 280-ft lb.
Then we did the breaker bars again, only with a gorilla about twice my size. Nothing doing. Well, any excuse for a new tool. Harbor Freight had a sale, and I had a coupon for another 10 bucks off, so, I now have a very hefty IR gun good for (probably realistically) 640ft-lb.

It took about 10 seconds, but they came off.
Oddly, there was no corrosion on the threads, they'd just been severely torqued/fastened last time.

Anyway, sounds like you haven't tried heat yet. Heat and an impact wrench together can be pretty formidable.

Good luck
roger 86Na,
austin tx

Renntag

*****PB Blaster is the best! Period.

i was reading through this thread waiting for someone to say HEAT!!!!
All else fails get it real hot, **** it off good enough and it will come out.

Have you gotten the nut off the bolt yet?
Is the bolt stuck in the chassis?
If removing the nut is giving you the blues, apply heat, put a wrench on the bolt head and then focus your attention on the nut. dont even worry about the bolt until it starts to spin...THEN worry about it. Once you have the nut broken, move it out a couple threads, apply lube, then tighten it again. Move it out a little further and repeat...this will keep the threads from self destructing and make it less of a fight to get the nut off.

Now if the bolt wont come out, use a pneumatic hammer with the hammer bit installed (larger head like that of a hammer) and use it to pound on the head of the bolt. This would be essentially driving it in. Even though it is allready in all the way, the tremendous amount of shock will free it somewhat(usually). If you are only able to get the bolt to slide out partially, apply lube to both sides and push it in and out until the lube works all the way through..turn it also.

Dont be afraid to use an oxy acetelene torch...just be smart with it...use a piece of sheet metal to block the flames from delicate items...A good mechanic wont think twice about using the smoke wrench with great intelligence. ...I said good not butcher.

In situations like this...tenacity goes along way...


Good luck.


Colin, Who never ever looses to seized, broken, or in any other way 'challenged' hardware.

Tabor

That was 750ft/lb of torque applied 1,200 times a minute!

K27

I like to use a propane plumbers torch, it can't really overheat to many things, but works good on seized nuts and bolts.

rplencne

And if all else fails, split/cut the nut off and replace. Just make sure you have the replacement before you start.

-Bob P