Dear Jaguar Brain Trust,
I am trying to revitalize my suspension by replacing my worn shocks.

To do this I need to take out the upper Wishbone. The passenger side came out easy as you please.

The driver side will not budge, I have soaked it with Sea Foam Deep Creep and PB Blaster for two weeks. I have heated up the bolt with a propane torch and added more lubricant.

My breaker bar, with a two foot pipe extension does nothing. I used an electric impact driver with 385 ft lbs of torque and it did not budge.

I even put two nuts on the threaded end to protect the threads and pounded on it with a sledge hammer, not even a minor budge.

Here is a picture of the situation.

Am I missing the special handshake that releases this bolt from the chassis?

 

Does it Rotate?

If not, a cutoff wheel is in your future.

 

I'd had enough after 5 mins of hammering.

 

At least your bolts were in better condition than mine. Those black rings you see around the bolts were all that was left of my bushes. No wonder it felt like driving on ice when I first got it.







http://www.jaguarforum.com/showthrea...highlight=bolt

 

The worst one I had took 3 days of alternate soaking with release oil and heating.

Usually it's the inner sleeve of the bushes corroded onto the fulcrum bolt that stops it either turning or sliding out.

Be as brutal as you like with the bushes and fulcrum bolt but remember the crossmember is aluminium. You don't want to do anything that risks distorting the hole.

Graham

 

Dear Members,
Thank you for the support, no I don't feel like this beautiful car is going to turn into a yard ornament.

To Ungn, no the bolt does not turn at all.

To Graham, I was afraid that this was a case of galling. Like a steel spark plug fused in an aluminum head. Does the steel bolt "cold weld" to the aluminum frame? Is there a penetrant that works on Aluminum to metal fusion?

To FrankC, did the bolt come out easily after you cut off the bushings?

 

I just had to cut the alternator bolt out the aluminum bracket of my rust free '97.

The AL and steel will diffuse together and share atoms when they corrode.

Before cutting it off try a 6 foot breaker bar (a piece of pipe).

 

Howdy folks:
I was fortunate that I could inch the bolt over enough by tapping on the nut to the point that I could catch the bolt head with a long open end wrench, then drive it out by hammering on the wrench. This method may help under "not as severe" conditions.

 

Many US members swear by Kano Kroil.



Always very good reports about it.

Graham

 

I did not cut them off. The bits on the bolt were all that was left of the bushes. Quite horrific isnt it? I removed the bolts with those bits on, and yes I did learn some new swear words doing it.

 

Dr.D got me to thinking,

Would a ball joint pickle fork tool work in this situation to break the bolt free?

Am I missing something in this solution that would bend or damage the upper wishbone?

 

Not sure about the ball joint separator, but have you tried a floor jack underneath the end of the breaker bar/2 foot extension? Against the weight of the car, that's more torque than you can put on the extension yourself. You could maybe also hammer on the nut end while it's under tension from the jack.

 

Maybe, but the bolt is likely stuck 2 places.

If it doesn't rotate, its stuck to the AL crossmember. Break it free from this by rotating it.

Then, if its still stuck, it has rusted to the one or both of the bushing sleeves. If its rusted to the nut side bushing sleeve, no way will it pull the sleeve through the hole in the X-member, no matter how much hammering you do.

So cutting the bolt is the only good option. If its just rusted to the bolt head side bushing sleeve, it should hammer out.

 

Only cut it as an absolute last resort as once you've done that you have nothing much to hold onto. As a start ,do yourself a favor and clean the center section with abrasive paper and WD40. At least then when it does decide to move its not going to be a bitch all of the way. Heat the center section with a blow lamp taking care not to keep away from the aluminium, let it cool then spray with WD40 and leave overnight. Try to move with a 3ft breaker bar, if it doesn't move, repeat the previous steps. It should give up ,eventually! when it does start to turn ,put an impact gun on it and spin/ spray with WD40. Then give it a tap with a hammer , first out ,then clean the new section of bolt in the center section, spray and knock it back.Repeat , knocking it out just a bit more each time. It should get progressively easier each time. If you cant get it to turn then cutting it and wacking it out could damage the hole in the aluminium. You only have to look at the pictures in the previous replies where the corrode part is, knocking that through a precision machined part is not going to end well. You would be better taking the sub frame to an engineering works and get them to drill out as much as possible to weaken it. Even so you may be faced with having to rebush the holes

 

Tell us what happens to the bolt when you move the arm up and down.

From the pic it all looks brand new, clean and no corrosion.

By the way, you can get the shock out without removing the arm, look at the position of my arm in the first pic, clearly the shock is out.

If you have the charcoal canisters under that wing they may have to be out of the way first.

 

Its not the corrosion you can see that is the problem, its the tiny gap between the ali and the bolt. Whether its electrolytic or what, I'm not sure but what I'm certain about is that the slightest amount just wedges the bolt in the hole. There was a service bulletin that the gap was to be sprayed with waxoyl at every service to prevent the issue.

 

If I remember right I got it out so far and it would not budge so I angle ground the bits that had moved to make them smaller. Greased it. Hammered it back in ground the now exposed bits. Hammered it back out. It came a little bit further so repeated on the newly exposed bits. I also used heat and if my remember right one of those fork shaped ball joint removers? Took a lot of sweat and swearing but I got it out eventually.

 

I had a very old version of this, and a short heavy hammer.

HEAVY DUTY SILVERLINE 8" BALL JOINT REMOVER SPLITTER SEPARATOR TIE ROD END | eBay

 

I had the same thing happen to me. Luckily I was able to hammer it out. I then found out why this happened. Whoever the "lug nut" was that installed these bolts used at least one washer that was too small and had to be pressed on to the bolt at installation. When I reassembled mine I ground out that one washer and it installed without trouble.

 

First, thank you all for your experience and insight.

As I said before, I was trying everything.

I bent a craftsman breaker bar, so I knew this situation was out of the ordinary.

So I cut off the bolt end and I could not believe what I found. The amount of corrosion made it necessary to "cut" the stainless steel bushing end cap off and the alignment spacers were rusted together. Of course all were rusted to the bolt as well. I thought having one end freed would allow the bolt to

turn, but alas, it did not.

I then cut off the bolt head end and got the A arm off. The amount of corrosion inside the bushings was amazing. Now I have a collection of rusted washers and spacers like Frankc!

I have ordered a new bolt, stainless steel end caps and alignment spacers.

As you can see from the pictures I still have to remove the alignment spacers from the left front position on the bolt. I was trying to save them but the will not rotate or budge.

I have hit the threaded end with a sledge hammer and she does not budge.

Is there a graceful way to drill out the bolt without damaging the aluminum frame?

Perhaps drill out the bolt enough to crush the inside?

Hell, I would even drill out the bolt and put a dry ice suppository in the bolt if you thought it would release this thing.

Now I know why they came out with the directive to keep this from corrosion!