As the title says.

Bit of a nightmare really. Was trying to remove the upper wisbone and found the bolt completely siezed in. Nut came off easily and managed to get the bushings out as well but have also managed to snap off the head of the bo.

I currently have a clamp (from a pressing tool, Looks like a very heavy duty G clamp) on it as tight as it will go in the hope that a couple of days of slowly tightening it and liberal use of prenetrating fluid will get it to move but I am not hopeful.

I believe the Subframe that it attaches to aluminium ?. Is it possible to carefully drill out the bolt ? (and hope the hole in the subframe hasn't ovaled out)

Obviosly if the holes are ovaled out it will require a new subframe. Is this a feasible job on the driveway ? From what I have seen it looks reasonably straight forward but as with everything else I expect there will be some difficult bits of it. If I need to replace the subframe I will probably replace all the suspension bushes and bolts.

Anyone got any suggestions that may help ?

 

Hi tberry6686,

Unfortunately, you have a common problem that many here have experienced. See attached thread.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-stuck-121249/

In most cases it appears to be penetrating oil and hammering that solves it.



The fulcrum bolt itself does not turn within the subframe during normal suspension set-up. The design is for all motion to be absorbed by the bushes - so it would be unusual for you to discover oval bores. I would not attempt to drill out due to risk of wander and damaging the softer Aluminium.

The inner bush sleeves are known to corrode to the fulcrum shaft which could be your problem. My approach would be to saw/grind off one end of fulcrum bolt to remove the wishbone and give clearance for a clamp (you need to get a new bolt anyway) and try to push out using hammer blows and G-Clamps - as you are doing. It will come out with force. Some have used a bit of heat but I don’t know how successful that has been.

The last resort is to remove the subframe, but if you need to do this, I can advise you the step by step procedure. I managed the task on my own and within a single garage. Where in the UK are you?

 

I had this happen also. In the end I purchased a second hand subframe and swapped it. The subframe was about £120. It was a lot of work but I just couldn’t see any other way. I used it as an opportunity to replace the bushes and clean and paint the control arms.

 

I have removed the wish bone (love cordless angle grinders) and have all the bushes, washers and bush sleeves out. Just the remainder of the bolt left with about 1cm prottruding at the front end and about 3cm at the back. The clamp I have on it allows me to apply a lot of pressure on it (pushed out the ball joint from the wishbone with ease) so with any luck, lots of penetrating fluid and slowly increasing the pressure should get it free. I'm about 30 miles north of Aberdeen but it looks like we will have some dry weather here for the next few days (a bit cold though, thermal boiler suits are my friend at present).

 

OK, I think you're doing the right thing in applying oil and pressure. It will take time and tonnage to move it.

The front Subframe is a high quality Aluminium Alloy casting. The composition is so good that we seldom see any corrosion on it. Usually, the corrosion is to other items bolted to it (I once saw an XK8 in a scrapyard with rust throughout the underside and the subrframe remained intact). So I think it's only your bolt that has corroded. When you look at the Steel-to-Aluminium contact area, it is approx 20mm at each end. I wonder what condition the fulcrum bolt is - at the middle visible part?


I asked where you were located, thinking I could lend you tools and equipment to change out the subframe, But at 600miles away, you couldn't be any further by land!

 

I don't have any pictures of the centre section of the bolt bit as soon as I looked at it the other day I decided it needed replaced so that should tell you that it doesn't look very good.
Just added more PB Blaster to the whole thing and managed to put another quarter turn on the clamp but no other indication it has moved yet. I'll give it a few days of doing that and hopefully it will come free. The reason I started it yesterday was because I was waiting for a new bolt and bushes. Gonna need to order all the washers as well now as they were trashed getting the bushes off.

Thanks

 

Is there enough material to grab with vise grips or something similar and try to rotate the bolt to break it free? You might be able to get some good leverage that way.

 

There is plenty to grip but that had no effect - no movement in any way from it with that. I'll just keep trying with pressure and penetrating fluid and hopefully it will come free in a couple of days

 

It's worth cleaning up the bolt shank as much as possible - whichever way it comes out, that section has to pass through a hole in the subframe. There is room to pass a length of emery tape around the back to get at the out-of-sight areas.

 

The worst one of these I've tackled was still resisting after a week. The section visible here in the centre of the crossmember is the bolt - it's not a sleeve.





I ended up removing the shock absorber to make it more accessible and cutting diagonally across the bolt (where arrowed) with an angle grinder. Once it was in two halves with each section seized in one of the crossmember bushes instead of both, it succumbed to persuasion.

Graham

 

That may well be the best way to deal with this now you mention it. If it is stuck at both ends the the amount of force needed to move either side will be heavily reduced by splitting it in 2. I'll give it another day or so with pressure and penetrating fluid then if it still hasnt moved Ill preak out the angle grinder again

 

have you tried beating it with a 5lb sledge - get one end flush with the subframe then take a 12"long 1/2" socket extension against the bolt and hit with the sledge to pound it out

 

I want to expand on this logic.
I'm definitely all in for giving penetrating oil a chance to do its job.
What if you put a couple of nuts on the shank end and jammed them together or bottomed a nut on the threads if possible, then put breaker bars (long ones) on both ends of the bolt at the same time. Heck, I've been known to lay the end of a breaker bar on a 20 ton pneumatic jack with good results.
Rather than cutting the bolt in half to reduce the force needed for each piece of the bolt, why not double the force with two breaker bars and not cut the bolt?
Less risk of damage to the cross member and who knows, you may be able to save the bolt.

 

Nowhere left to attach bolts too really - certainly no threads left or bolt head. I looked at cutting the bolt in the centre section but (unless you can get small Cutting disks, My grinders take 115mm disks) it would be cutting into the subframe before it even touched the bolt. Maybe a dremel could do it but Im not sure the cutting disks would be lage enough to get through to the far side.

I have been cycling heat and cold through it to try and thermally shock it free with no luck so far and using the clamp to apply pressure overnight along with copius amounts of petetrating fluid bit it still looks solid at this point (might have moved a tiny bit but you would be talking less than 0.5mm so difficult to tell)

 

That's the point I was trying to make. Better to put two long breaker bars on either end of the bolt than to go through what you are. I guarantee I could get it freed with a breaker bar on a 12 ton jack, as long as I can get a 1/2 drive impact socket on the head.
But you're already beyond that point so all I can do is wish you good luck.

 

I'm not so sure about that. The bolt head actually snapped off

 

Oh, crap. Let me rephrase that. With a breaker bar and a 12 ton jack I'll either free the entire bolt or just the head.
You're dealing with one really stuck bolt.
That bolt is quite thick and must be made of good material so to snap the head off it must really want to stay put. Well, just keep bathing it in penetrating oil and I wish you luck.

 

I just about have enough left on either end to try welding a couple of nuts (don't know why I didn't think of that before) but I am on a wierd shift for the next week so won't really have time for doing much to it so I'll just keep going with a few hammer taps and penetrating oil till I have more free time.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, Feel free to add anything more you can think of, I'm willing to give anything a go really.

 

well, constant soaking in penetrating fluid and hammering, pressure hasn't done a thing so far so am carrying on with that at present.

I have been wondering about drilling down from the top of the subframe to the bolt and filling the hole with penetrating fluid/oil and seeing if that soaks in (i'm not sure at this point if any of the fluid is actually getting in alongside the shaft).

If I tried that and it worked and the bolt came free, would the subframe be reusable ? Im thinking 5mm hole, tap it out and fit a grease nipple with regular greasing to prevent this happening again.

Any thoughts on this idea ?

 

That would not destroy the sub frame and the grease nipple is a great ides. I read of that being done not long ago.