JWXTREME

I am attempting to lower my car but can not budge the front bolts. I am turning the bolts counter-clockwise with a 6 point 10mm wrench. I have jacked up the spring to remove tension, soaked the bolts in WD-40 and PB blaster and slid a pipe over the wrench for more leverage and still nothing. I am begining to worry about rounding the bolt. I have read several topics on lowering the car and eveyone seems to be able to adjust the bolts easily. Is there something I'm doing wrong? I read a couple of posts about removing the bolts, any drawbacks to doing this? How do you remove the bolts? Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!

F1_SS

Could just be yours are so old they are rusted on.

edit-On my 02 car they were hard but we managed. I hope they arent rusted on when i do my 01 car.

mountainbiker2

Maybe it's been lowered all ready. Try turning the bolt the other way and see what happens.

Steve

JWXTREME

They are a little brown/rusty but I wouldn't imagine them being this bad. I have worked on rust buckets from the 50's and never had this many problems with popping bolts!

JWXTREME

I thought I was going crazy, so tried to move them the other direction and no response. These things won't budge. I have broke to craftsmen sockets trying to turn them. Is there a way to cut them out? Thanks for the suggestions.

jmzvet

Place a jack under the front monoleaf spring to relieve the pressure on the adj bolt. You should able to turn it by hand unless it's rusty or seized.

99blackFRC

JWXTREME

I have tried to place the jack on the spring in several locations. When you put pressure on the spring is it easily moved with slight play? Even though I have pressure on the spring it doesn't seem to release any tension.

ArKay99

You have to jack as close to the bolt as possible. Then you have to put a LOT of upwards pressure on it. On mine I have to almost lift the front end. Then it gets easy. There is a sweet spot. If you go too much you put pressure on the other side of the threads and it gets hard again.

vette747

I spent a week soaking the bolt with WD-40 while the car was on jack stand. I was also putting a jack under the spring. I could see a gap between the bolt bushing and the lower A-arm. Still no movement.

I heated the bolt with the heat gun. The same one I use to remove the paint. I was careful not to heat too much. It took les than 2-3 minutes and the bolt started turning.

Y2Kvert4me

Uhh, no. You can't place too much upward pressure on the front spring....all that happens is either the bottom of the bolt lifts off the control arm, or you begin to lift the whole car off the ground...I've found the latter usually happens first, which means there is still some downward tension of the spring on the arm.

Common error:
If you are jacking on the control arm and not the spring, you are making the problem worse and adding tension. Jack up on the (black) fiberglass spring...it is what's pressing down on the control arm.

minytrker

When lowering my friends 99 FRC I ran into the same thing but we rounded off one bolt. The only way we got them broke loose was to take a big pair of channel lock pliers and grab the bottom of the bolt where the metal is and then it turned real easy. Once it was broke free I could turn it by hand. On the other side we just used the channel locks from the start and had no problems.

VA 98 VETTE

I had the same problem, but it wasn't the bolts that wouldn't move, it was the bushings had frozen. Sprayed PB Blaster all around bushing and it freed things up.

ArKay99

Duh, that's right. I usually do mine when on a lift, so I don't go as far as lifting the spring off the control arm, just before.

1-BAD-C5

I had that same issue with my front spring they would not move at all,... i broke the bolts they were so tough to get off, even after leting them soak for a weak in pb blaster and wd 40... i had to go buy a new spring, it sucked,. good luck

JWXTREME

Thanks for everyone's advice. I will give it another try tonight since the bolts have been soaking. Sounds like some just don't want to be as easy as others.

99FewteRC5

I ran into the same problelm...ended up taking the whole spring off the car, then it broke loose.