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Trouble removing front struts

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    #1

    Trouble removing front struts

    I'm redoing my suspension in my cabrio. I've got all the items unbolted from my front strut (doing driver's side first), but the two bolts that hold the strut to the control arm and to the steering arm (forget the name of it) are pretty seized on. Its hard to get any leverage to give either arm a good whack, but any prying (with crowbar, etc.) doesn't seem to help. Is there a trick to this? Any advice?

    TIA, Rob
    A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do- Walter Gagehot

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    #2
    Soak them with bolt penetrating oil, stick an old nut on the end and pound. or use a Ball joint seperator and a long breaker bar and yank them loose. What I did on my 88(currently doing the suspension) was break the bolts loose retorque then drove around for a day then the next day when I did the suspension all but one ball joint came loose pretty easily.
    85 325e 2.7 ITB'd stroker

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      #3
      not sure if this is the problem or not, but I have found they come out much easier if you leave the strut bolted on up top. Then make sure you have the sway bar unbolted from the control arm, or you will never get it off, atleast not by wacking on the bolt. Also don't just wack on the bolt as you will mess up the threads on the control arm bolt and the tie rod. If you are going to wack on it with a hammer make sure you have the nut screwed on to protect the threads.

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        #4
        Don't do the 'whack on the thing with a nut on the threads' method. I've screwed up threads more than once doing that, and it's not fun waiting for a control arm or tie rod to come in the mail. It's tough to screw up the control arm, but the tie rod threads are small and weak and easy to break.

        Pickle forks are an okay method, but it's easy to rip the boots. I can usually get a 2 arm 4" gear puller on the tie rod.

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          #5
          [quote="Bill 84 318i"]Don't do the 'whack on the thing with a nut on the threads' method. I'm screwed up threads more than once doing that, and it's not fun waiting for a control arm or tie rod to come in the mail. It's tough to screw up the control arm, but the tie rod threads are small and weak and easy to break.quote]

          And it isnt fun trying to rethread 3 out of 4 ball joints after someone else flattened the threads. Even with a nut on the top, you run the risk of messing things up.

          Good luck.

          Aaron

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            #6
            rob- I found that heat works fairly well. a few minutes with a torch and a couple of mallet strikes and they should come loose
            BEERTECH

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              #7
              Originally posted by Rob
              rob- I found that heat works fairly well. a few minutes with a torch and a couple of mallet strikes and they should come loose
              How do the boots on the ball joint hold up with heat?

              Aaron

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                #8
                I had the same problem about 2 months ago when i replaced my front struts. First I soaked it repeatedly with Pb Blaster, penetrating oil. Put the nut back on the ball joint so that the top is level with the top of the ball joint nut. Then seriously just pound the hell out of it with a RUBBER mallet. If you hit it with a regular hammer you'll crush the treads and have to take out a hacksaw to cut the bolt down.

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