This may be a long post, so forgive me. I was having trouble with one of my trailing arm bolts (as many do) but I refused to give in because the first one came out. That's a pretty stupid philosophy, but I'm sticking to it. Anyway, with all the difficulty I saw with others even trying to cut the bolts, I decided to try something different.
Let me say I am also now a PB blaster disciple I got the bolt to move about 1/2 inch, and then it stopped. I figured out it was free on both ends but frozen in the bushing. Pounding had no effect Now, I was able to get the shims out already (whew!) and figured why not use the strength of the bolt to my advantage. So I forced the arm inboard until it stopped, and place the some of the shims back in (after they were labeled of course) on the outboard side. I threaded the castle nut back on, and started to crank on the castle nut. This way, the bolt would move slowly outward, the trailing arm would stay in place, and the bolt would free from the bushing. Believe it or not, it worked! After six full threads of movement, I shifted the arm inboard a bit, removed the shims and tapped away at the bolt with a screwdriver. Once it was through the outer hole, I supported the arm to re-orient it and tapped on the bolt head to move it the rest of the way. Be careful when tapping on that side, there are fuel lines there!

Anyway, I wanted to share an alternative that worked for me and avoided the cost of blades and time cutting the bolt. Hopefully it will help someone else!

 

Creative solutions are always good to add to the knowledge base. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing a rusty frozen bolt start to move after it has been sitting in place for 40 years.



Rick B.

 

Thanks! My downfall is sometimes in trying to be clever it takes me twice as long as it would have another way. This worked out though!

 

I understand that!

 

crvtownr, This is the best advice ever
I got the bolt out in right side by hammering but the left side has been standing soaking in WD40 for a couple of weekends and occationally I have wacked it - but no budge.
After reading your post I went right out and it moved. Took me less than 15 mins to get the bolt out completely.

 

I'm happy to see you found a solution to your problem in a thread from over 10 years ago. that's why searching old threads is a good thing! however, do you know if these people are even still on the forum? replying to such an Old thread isn't really necessary.

 

I realise they may not be in the forum but I took the chance.
First time I saw this way of solving the problem and thought it was so obvious.
I have posted some questions in a more recent list