So I was lowering my C5 today. I finished the rear and moved onto the front. I can not loosen the front bolts on either side. I have a 98 so I think that they are frozen. How do I fix this? Do I need an entire new leaf spring?

 

Did you jack up on the spring to take the tension off the bolts?

 

You need to use a jack under the end of the spring to push up on it a relieve pressure on the bolt which is sitting on top of the lower
a-arm. The pressure is keeping the bolt from turning. You need to jack the end of the spring quite a bit to get it off hte A-arm. Jack the front of the up on stands first.

Also, you may want to spray some PB Blaster or WD-40 on it and let it sit for awhaile before trying again.

 

if not you will ruin the bushings on the bolts. costing you a new spring to fix the bolt heads are tiny and you need to get some penetraiting lube or risk stripping them real easily

 

yea man ive been trying everything, there is no way that bolt is budging....damn sucks so bad rear looks so good haha. but yea i think im just gonna replace the leaf spring and get some new bolts. does anyone know where i can a stock C5 leafspring??? Ive seen the aftermarket ones but they're up in the 500s

 

 

Why replace the whole spring? have you ruined the bolts and bushings allready? i do have a spring and it has a tore bushing on the driver side from this same type situation. i purchased new aftermarket bolts and delrin bushings to fix it before i found out my GMPP warranty would replace the spring for me. so i have a old srping and xtra bolts/bushings. if you want, you could buy my new bolts and bushings and just put them in your sring. they have way bigger heads to the bolts and stronger bushings too. $65 and they will get sent to ya
i purchased them for that from a forum vendor

 

I had the exact same problem with mine even when the spring was jacked up. I also have arthritis in my wrist which made it even harder to put leverage on that little tiny 10mm wrench.

I sprayed it down completely with WD-40, and after about 10 minutes I took a 3/4 box end wrench and positioned it on the other end of the 10mm to use for leverage. It was a long tedious (pain in the ***) thing to do, but I was bound and determined to make that bolt turn.

Hope you get it handled!

 

yea man ive been trying all day. the bolt is toast. it finnaly stripped so i dont know what to do now....like i said i think i need a new spring because it seems like the bolt is rusted to the inside of the spring and theres no coming out for it. heres the vette as she stands right now....the rear lowered, front stock height

 

I have a warranty on the car, do you think it would cover this even though i stripped the bolt??? i just figured they would just tell me that because its a stock height right now theres nothing to fix

 

If you've stripped the hex, try vise grips, it makes no difference if you booger the threads. If it won't turn now you won't taking 'em out anyway, and if it does move you will be turning it away from the messed up threads to lower it. You can also take the clip off the bolt, clean it up good, find a nut that fits the bolt and screw it on using some non-serviceable loctite. After that sets up you can use a bigger wrench on it. If the nut comes off with the locktite on it you can bet is froze to the spring. PB Blaster works better than WD-40.

 

how do i change the bolts??? and yea ive tried vise grips but havent clamped them to the threads yet... is there anyway to completely take the bolts out in my situation or are the bolts part of the leaf spring?

 

use a small pipe wrench 6or 8 inch..

 

If you could completly take the bolts out they would turn and you could lower it. The bolts are screwed through the leaf spring from the bottom up , that is the reason for the smaller hex on top of the bolt.

 

ok, but that idea you had with the locktight and nut seems like a really good idea, i think ill try that tomorrow. thanks a lot man!!!

 

Maybe you should have asked the "How To? " questions before you screwed it up.

This bolt won't turn problem is common when people:

1. Don't take the tension off the leaf spring
2. Turn the bolt the wrong way to start with and strip the bolt.
3. Don't use a penatrating oil.

Good Luck on youir fix.

 

my GMPP did. maybe yours will too. most aftermarket ones wont cover this issue. i doubt a stipped bolt will ever be covered.mine luckily did but it was because the bushing was bad. and GM does not offer that without buying the entire spring. i ended up with the entire spring replaced. thats why i have these after market bolts and bushings still. the factory bolts need to go out thru the bottom to remove. maybe have to take the spring out to do this with vise grips now. lots of people have done this to these bolts. the heads are very small on the stk ones. try the vise grips to get it to turn while on the car. but dont go so far as to make it impossible to remove the bolts later if you need to.

****the bolts unscrew thru the bottom for the factory ones. the aftermarket real bolts go in thru the top and screw down and into the better bushings below the spring. they have a huge head on them, almost impossible to strip. YOUR BEST BET IS TO REMOVE THE SPRING. and remove the ruined bolts with it off the car by grabing the side with the bushing. if you foul up the threads in the spring you will be spending lots more money than you need too. running tweaked out threads thru the spring could also ruin those threads in the spring!!!! ****

 

i havent ruined any threads on the bolt yet...but the top is pretty torn. what if i cut the top of the bolt off with a hack saw and then unscrew them from the spring???? Is there a nut on the bottom of the spring that will allow me to take it out?

PS....i AM interested in your offer for the bolts and bushings. send me a PM

 

i would think the vise grips would be enough from the bottom after getting the bushings cut off them to remove them. but.. you would have to destroy the bushings to do it that way. seems if you are allready going to try and remove them and save the spring, that would be the safest bet. a very good quality penetraiting lube should be of help. wd-40 aint the one you want here. someone earlier said the name of a very good one. i forget the name now it may losen enough to not worry about any of this..........
pb blaster-- thats the one. try that stuff. i hear its the shat for this.
i'll pm ya

 

GREAT PICS.
For us newbies, this is just what is needed.

Thanks, it has been great to see just what the "bushing" is that needs cutting,
I hear so much about it, and now I know what it is.
graham