How does it come out? The nut is frozen. The bolt is too close to fibreglass for a torch. How do you grab one side and the other? I cannot see how a dremel (drastic approach) can get in there. What is the secret? I picked up some SS shims and wish to have a "true" rear wheel alignment done but the shops will not touch that T/A bolt to do it. I do not have a major alignment issue but had rear struts done and was thinking of replacing the bolt and bushing and getting back to them. They say that in most instances the back lines up nicely without the shims????

 

If you can't get the nut off, you can get a Dremel to the outside of the nut. Use the little cutting wheels and slice the nut along the length of the bolt. You might have to cut top and bottom of the nut. I guarantee you will use about 10 of the little wheels doing this job on one nut.
After you have cut through down to the bolt, get a chistle and split the nut off the bolt. This probably won't end your troubles, you then have to drive the bolt out toward the center of the frame.
Due to the small amount of space it is nearly impossible to get anything on the end of the bolt to do much hammering. If you are lucky it won't give you too much trouble. If not then you can try repeated soakings with penetrant over several days and try and drive it through again.
If this all fails then the only recourse you have is get a Sawzall and a dozen or so blades and start sawing on each side of the trailing arm.
You'll probably have to saw through the shims as they are probably welded together by rust.
This is a dirty hard job, and makes replacement with Poly bushings and Stainless Steel parts a real necessity.

 

Thanks, I think :eek:. That gives me a VERY good idea of why the shop wants to get things close but not perfect with the SS shims. I do not have tire cupping problems and the car tracks very well so I will go with their advice. This is the only shop in town which knows C3s so....They tend to take a leave it alone if it is OK approach. And I admire that honesty. Basically they say the factory specs on the T/A arms are OK unless the car is invloved in an accident or severe autocross useage occurs. The strut arms and adjusters are new GM. I think I will go with the basic four-wheel alignment at this point. I just went through the misery of replacing the rear wheel bearings and rear spring cushions/bolts. The inner bearing on one spindle would not come off until 10 tons was applied at a local machine shop. That mushroomed the threaded end. Recycled splindle was needed. The spring cushion bolt nuts were frozen; they had to be cut off with a dremel as I do not have a torch. The rear rotors had the original rivets :( . And I do not wish to talk about parking/emergency brakes. Fortunately, the local GM dealer had the springs in stock. What a *((^%% system!! I am tired....No more cutting and cursing in the near future I hope. But thanks for the reply .


[Modified by paul79, 9:01 PM 9/7/2001]

 

Paul,
in a couple months we will not be driving our vettes, wait 'til October to get the alignment, take your time and replace the bolts and SS shims. the parts are not expensive and it will only take a weekend or so to replace the old shims and bolts. this way you will be sure you will get an accurate alignment and the best possible handling.

 

I used a sawzall to cutout the trailing arms on mine. It was the hardest job I have ever done on a car in my 25 years of working on them as a hobby. If you use a dremel to cut off the nut, you will never drive the bolt out as they seize in the bushing. The bolts need to be on each side of the arm by the bushing. Now that my car front and rear suspension is complete, it drives perfect. It was worth the sweat.

Dwayne

 

Patrick,
Thank you for the reply. But I am now confused. I do not know a hole from slotted. Respondents are saying from five minutes to a weekend to do the job. Here are the SS shims that I have. They have holes and slots??? I would appreciate further advice.

 

You have the slotted shims. Slot on one end...hole on the other. The slot is pushed up on either side of the bolt. Then a large..very long cotter pin goes through the shim holes and then through holes in your frame to keep them from coming out. Original shims have holes on both ends...the trailing arm bolt goes through those shims, as they were installed at the factory...aligned too. It's a miserable job to remove a frozen TA bolt. I use a die grinder with a coarse bit. I cut, pull, cut, pull, till I get it out. Another problem...if the TA bolt is galled in the arm itself, you get to cut BOTH sides. Then you get to replace the TA bushings, etc. This is the very reason why many shops will do a rear wheel alignment on a Corvette on a time and material basis only. Many Corvette owners don't understand this, and will gripe continuously when the shop will not give them a price. You can spend HOURS getting the bolts out. Hope this helps. Chuck

 

Paul,

I did this exact job on my 79 this spring. Started as a rear wheel alignment as well. I actually got all of the shims out of one side and the bolt was so frozen to the TA bushings that I drove it home and it didn't move! I wound up having to use an airhammer to get the rusted shims to move enough to work them out. The sawzall was the only way to cut the bolt. PITA!

Believe me, there is no short cut. If you do decide to try for the alignment you will wind up removing both TAs, replacing the TA bushings, etc. As you know to get them out the 1/2 shafts and the shock mount/struts have to come out as well.

Once they are out you will be tempted to clean and detail and maybe replace differential mount busings, and then the crossmenber bushings, and maybe drop the tank and maybe drop the differential and maybe then would be a good time to replace the U-joints, perhaps send the TA assemblies to Vansteel, etc....... :eek:

Have fun and good luck!

LMJ

 

Paul, I've done this job a couple of times now. On my buddy's car, everything just unbolted and it didn't take long. On mine, I had to use a sawzall, and if Patrick did it in 5 minutes, he's one lucky dude. I spent about 2 hours/side.

Something else to watch out for is if the bolts are rust-welded: I damaged the integrity of one of the frame holes driving the bolt out and had to weld a doubler plate to it in order to repair. I agree that it's best to wait a couple more months, then do it when you have adequate time in case of unforeseen trouble.

good luck!

 

Thanks to All for the replies. Obviously no shortcuts for the job. Judging by the rust-welded spring cushion nuts and bolts that had to come off by cutting them in half, the T/A pivot bolt will also be a challenge. There is only about six weeks of driving time left before winter, and the car does track nicely, so I am going to drive. And contemplate my T/A navel after the snow flies. I am also going to drop by Home Depot and find out what a Sawzall is. Never seen one. We used a Dremel on the spring bolts and it worked very well, if slowly.

The alignment shop said if things are very close and only minor adjustments are needed, they will do those for 1/2 hour labour or about $25.00. I am going with that for the moment. Again, thanks for the warning on this job. The right rear wheel bearings took us more than 12 hours because the inner was seized on the spindle shaft. We had the tools but....off to the machine shop. I cannot face such a struggle again: everything seems stuck, frozen, rust-welded, whatever. And to think that I almost left the bearing job with the GM dealer at $80.00/hour :eek: rather than have a friend with the proper tools tackle it. :yesnod:. I once thought of buying a C2 "project" car but I now realize that I do not have the deep wallet and time to go down that road. Every week a new learning experience!