Just a note that many already know, NEVER, spray brake cleaner on a hot part or heat up a part soaked with brake cleaner. You will end up in the hospital or retired from life.

 

Yes, this is a big deal for anyone that TIG welds as well. Never clean anything with brakecleaner and then tig it, it will be the last thing you work on.

 

My latest method I have been using (after training on carbon steel bolts in aluminum marine blocks run in saltwater), is to soak with PB or acetone/auto trans fluid for several days, heat with a hot air gun from HF (less risky than a torch), tap with 2 small hammers many times (like the old ball joint removal technique) and cool. It will take a number of cycles to get it off, the heating and cooling will eventually break the corrosion seal and every cycle will get a little more penetrant into the joint. Patience is your best friend doing this. Get into a hurry and the party is over. This might take several days. Also you might try rocking one way and rocking the other way (like tightening and loosening a bolt). Hope this helps. As said above fire hazard for sure so be prepared. If possible I try to get a container of whatever you can devise like a tin, bowl, ect that would allow you to submerge the piece in the penetrant for a few days in between heat gun episodes.

 

Brake Kleen is 80-90% acetone.
One of the best solvents, and very quick evaporating. And leaves no residue.
But it is very flammable as both a liquid and a vapor.
And it creates flammable vapors around the part you are cleaning at very low concentrations in air.
Basically a gas fireball if it ignites!
And it will auto-ignite at 800*F, far less than red hot steel at 1300*.
So it does not even need a spark! Just hot.

PB Blaster is not as bad, no acetone.
The old acetone/ATF mix is obviously just as bad.
Paint solvents are also primarily acetone.

I have created gas fireballs in my chem lab for students 100s of times.
Obviously great care is needed.
A 5" dia. balloon, full of ***, makes a roughly 3-4 foot fireball! And sounds like a cannon, and rattles windows.
Very entertaining.
And even makes teenagers pay attention to what they are handling.

Like any explosive mixture the results change dramatically when the quantity varies.
1mL in an open glass test tube only makes a high pitched bird "chirp", and has never broken a test tube.

Honestly I view Rubbing Alcohol as almost as dangerous. It's because it doesn't "seem" very bad because almost everyone has some in their bathroom! But I know of a teenager in town who died from his burns from that stuff.

Be careful out there!

 

I cut off the threads and pushed it out.

 

I've been dowsing the lower shock mount with 50/50 brake fluid/acetone for a few days now after several days of PB Blaster. So far nothing has worked yet. Now I've wrapped the mount with strips of terry cloth so it stays soaked. I haven't tried heat yet. But I like the heat gun idea as I surely don't want to start a fire, especially knowing I'm working with highly flammable liquids.

I plan to reuse my aluminum strut rods so I want to avoid cutting the shock mount off if I can avoid it, since I don't want to risk damaging the strut rod.

Thank you for the recommendations.

 

I understand that the CE car has some aluminum strut rods, which are rather unique. And un-obtainium.
If you can get them out intact, I would expect you could find some bushings to re-bush them with.

It is also obvious that your trailing arm is toast.
So it may be time for more drastic measures.
Saw-zall out the trailing arm, and put the hub/strut rod assembly on a bench where you can get better access.
Sacrificing the shock mounts is not that big of a deal, they are readily available.
The bearing hub is even much more readily available than those aluminum strut rods.
I recommend Cut off the ends off the shock mount, and start drilling on the rest of the stud that goes thru the hub ears.
Sawzalling between the strut rod and the hub support ears is risky. You could damage either part.
And the metal bushing core will not give up easily.

If you are careful enough, you could sawzall thru it, but the clearances to the other 2 parts are close. I had to do this, but I was not trying to save my one obstinant strut rod.
My steel bushing core, and the shock mount, had become extremely corroded, with expanding metal, had basically become one solid hunk of oxidation. No amount of heat would have ever got them apart. And my rust looked better than yours. I cut off the strut rod, off the bushing, down to the bushing core, and still had to cut the shock mount twice, to get the center section out. And nicked the hub ears doing so. Grrr....

I would try drilling as a slower, but safer, method.

 

I’ve been battling mine all week.
all week I have been hitting with pb blaster, heat and hammer.
today I gave up and just cut the strut rod off and cut the mount in half.
I could have hit them harder. But I was afraid of damaging the trailing arm.
id personally rather replace the rod and mount over the trailing arm

 

McMaster sells a tall, 5/8-18, grade 8 nut that is a great option to thread onto the mount to protect the threads while removing the lower shock mount. The part number is 90565A335. A pack of 10 is $13.50. I use one of these nuts, a quality brass hammer and plenty of Kroil.

 

UPDATE: I finally managed to get the shock mounts out of the spindle mount. I'll explain my method below for anyone else that is faced with the same issue.

First I cut off the threaded portion where the shock bolts on (see photos). This allowed me to slip the ball joint removal tool over the end. I used a heat gun from Harbor Freight to heat up the mount location and dowse it with 50/50 trans/acetone mixture. The heat gun gets the metal plenty hot as the 50/50 mix sizzles when applied. I also used a hacksaw blade (just the blade) to saw through the rubber bushing so the 50/50 mix could get to the bushing sleeve. The trans fluid causes rubber to swell and I was thinking the mixture may not be getting through the the bolt and sleeve area. I did this heating and dowsing several times... probably 5-7 times over the course of two days. Then I tightened down on the Ball Joint tool using a breaker bar and a 2 foot cheater pipe. It got to the point where I thought I couldn't get it any tighter, until it popped! Hope this method works for others facing the same issue.

Shock mount bolt.

Back side of bolt after being cut off... leaving some of the bolt on holds the ball joint tool in place.

Remnant of shock bolt

Ball joint tool in place (loaner from AutoZone)