I took on the task of replacing the left rear shock on my own, as the JTIS description seemed pretty straightforward. The pivot fulcrum bolt on the control arm was a cinch, no problem whatsoever, but the shock bolt is giving me fits. Coil spring is compressed, and is loose when the entire arm is lowered, upper mount is still attached. I removed the nut from the bolt, but the bolt itself just spins in shock bushing, in fact, the metal sleeve just spins with the bolt, and there is some rust present just where the bolt and the bushing sleeve come together.

I've used WD-40, and some garage blaster can on all sides of the bushing, heck its probably soaked for the last 2 hours, and heavy tapping on the bolt almost resulted in smashed threads. I wish I still had my pickle fork from the front suspension job, I could have used that to move the lower shock away from the arm, perhaps breaking that hold. As of right now, I can't get it to release from the bolt itself. I need some ideas...I'm fresh out. . It is disassembled in the garage, looking pretty pathetic.

 

Is there room to drill a hole thru the bolt to slide a pin thru and then pry against the pin to pull it loose? Can you see a metal sleeve that my be in the bushing that might be corroded to the bolt? If so do you have a dremmel that you could cut away at the bushing to be able to relieve the bolt? Is the shock going to be trash along with the bolt why not just cut away at the shock connection, thus halving the connection point....

 

Hmmm, cutting the sleeve with a dremmel may be a good idea, I've got one...

I had another idea when I was getting to sleep also, Im going to see if my vise-grips can bind the sleeve in place, and then turn the bolt... off to the garage, I'll let you know if I have any success.

 

cut my shock around the bolt, cut several perpendicular slots at the end facing outward but the sleeve is butted up against the control arm, and can't do the same there...ended up burning up my dremmel and bolt is still fused to the bushing sleeve. I may just cut the bolt, if I had something to do it with. An angle grinder may have to be purchased. I'm going to see if my neighbor has one I can borrow.

 

Matt

It might be easier to cut the head off the bolt and pull the lower part of the damper out through the cutout in the control arm (or at least get more clearance to cut the bolt again between the lower mount and the control arm).

Bolts are bolts if they are the same diameter and length. I don't think a damper bolt is anything more than grade 8.8 metric. Even if you had to get the SAE inch equivelent (or close) for temporary, you could buy one from a hardware store until the correct one was ordered and replaced (a week????) I think the diameter is 13mm or 14mm so a 1/2" X 7" bolt would work for emergency use, short term.

Just a thought. I'll talk to you soon.

bob gauff

 

If you use the angle grinder put some vise grips on the other end to keep the bolt from spinning. Just thought I would mention it. I need to look at my car to really picture what you are doing.

 

After speaking with motorcarman on the phone yesterday, I went back out to the garage to evaluate the situation some more. I had cut the outside, then the inner steel section out from the bottom of the shock housing. I beat the snot out of it some more, rotating the bolt once in awhile to try and break its hold on that sleeve. Then, put the nut back onto the end of the bolt, threaded it till it was almost all the way thru the nut, and hammered harder than normal...the bolt moved. I hit it some more, and I got another inch or so on the other side. I could not pull it thru, so removed the nut, and proceeded to use my brake socket/hex head as a punch, and hammered/pushed it thru the rest of the shock. What a relief! There was a layer of rust ONLY where it was resting inside of the shock, nowhere else on the bolt. It must have been the metal-metal reaction between the sleeve and the bolt, and I had to sand it off to get it back to its normal diameter. It was pretty ugly.

After that, my only issue came from removing the spring and shock cage together. With bob's advice, I unbolted the four bolts from the steel plate under the subframe and bent it back with my largest prybar, and stuck a large socket in it to keep it clear by about 1-1/2inches. See the control arm will rest on that plate if you don't, and by bending it back, the arm is allowed to fall down even farther. On the convertible, you also must remove the brace that is on that side, as that catches the arm as it drops. Bob mentioned if you have the car high enough in the air, and that plate is bent down far enough, you don't even need to use the spring compressor tool. In my case, being on jackstands, I used the spring compressors in combination, and my arm ended up being almost to the floor...and yet the spring/shock cage had to be manhandled to get it out and back in. Thanks bob for that additional tip, it helped.

As for my other issue, compressing the shock manually when the new one was about to be placed into the car inside the coil, well it has to be 'temporarily' held by a bolt so the shock is entirely inside the cage when placing it back into position. Did I mention I didn't have any 'helplers'? I was doing some gumby moves, admirable in any twister competition in order to both compress the spring and then place that bolt at the end of it...it had to be entertaining. Again, if the steel plate is bend down far enough, you may not even need to worry about that part. I didn't have that luxury though.

I've attached the rear shock R&R instructions from JTIS, as you can see, it doesn't mention anything about clearance and such to other components. Also, instead of the special tools to hold the 'hat' to the coil spring, I just used zipties, and be sure you use the side holes to do this, not the body bolt locations, they just get in the way when you go to reinstall it. It is important to keep that 'hat' that the top of the shock is bolted to snug to the top of the coil spring because if you don't, no matter how much you compress the coil spring, that hat will just extend outward with the shock (especially when you have that bolt stuck in between the coils to 'temporarily' position it. It just affects the height you have to jam that cage back into position.

 

Gumby moves. Been there. You can put anti seize on the bushing to keep it from attaching in future if it is not to late.

Good job!

 

I wasn't thinking that far ahead unfortunately, then I figured if these shocks last another 100,000 miles, the car will either be dead, or someone else will be doing that job for me.

 

I missed the critical moment for this one, but for future projects, I suggest getting some Kroil to use for things like this. This penetrant would have broken loose this joint overnight and made the removal much easier. I once put this stuff on a rusted bunch of exhaust manifold nuts so corroded they didn't look like nuts. They spun off the next morning! I put some Kroil on my XJ8 6HP26 tranny pan bolts from the topside and I had no issues with getting them loose, I could almost hand loosen them. I have been using this stuff for years and it's just about the most important tool I have, especially with steel/aluminum connections. No connection to the company.

 

Kroil is the real deal. I to have used it in the past and with better success than PB Blaster. Good stuff

http://www.kanolabs.com/

 

Is PB Blaster equivalent to Kroil?