Trying to takout the lowering bolt as done in this walkthrough: https://www.corvetteforum.com/techti...D=90&TopicID=1

I unbolted the bushing from the sway bar and unbolted the 2 nuts/bolts for the shock absorber. I undid the large nut directly behind the Rotor it seems as if thats where its stuck, in the pic on the bottom left. There is nothing else holding this thing up I tried WD40, shaking it, sticking a metal rod between it and the shock and try to wedge it out and yes I tried to HIT IT WITH A HAMMER!!

 

Mine came out fairly easy as my car only had about 15k on it when I lowered it. My friends 01 z06 with 50k was another story though.

You can either put the nut back on a couple threads and whack it out with a hammer or use a long pry bar to loosen the ball joint up. Dont give up, it will come loose.

 

This is the second time Ive been at this point, trying not to give up but this thing is a beast! There is nothing to pry from the ball joint under the rotor. The damn bolt that I want out is pretty close but the bushing is totally compressed and the top of the bolt it flush with the hole so I cant loosen it anymore. The A arm has to come down

 

You should use a ball joint fork (looks like a tuning fork) this will prevent damage to the threads like a hammer will cause.
This is also the easiest way to remove it IMO.
Get the fork that can be attached to an air chisel, and it should pop off in just a few seconds.

 

Try to find a long prybar. Wedge it in there and then stand on the F'er.

 

Dont have either one but would you just press the tongs around the thread and apply leverage? because I dont think that would do it.

LOL thats what I was thinking jeff. my car only has 48k miles, and Im sore from trying to leverage this thing out the hole. I put a jack under the leaf spring to try and go the opposite way. The jack is fully extended and I dont want to bend the leaf spring the opposite way anymore

 

A ball joint fork would work very well as stated above. You sandwich it between the ball joint and a-arm and hammer it in. As you hammer it in it will separate the joint.

If you cant get your hands on one the long pry bar should work.

 

Also instead of WD-40 I would try PB Blaster. It works much better than WD-40. You can find it at most part stores.

 

I am messing this thing up bad using force to try and pry it apart. The metal edges are all torn up this thing has an unnatural hold. The A arm is almost low enough to wedge the lowering bolt out but I cant get it to unscrew without a little more space.

 

Jack the leaf spring up high as you can and have someone pry down on the a-arm while you remove the bolt.

We'll get through this eventually.

 

Why cutting bushings is a bad idea:







The prior owner did it to my car. I ended up

a) stranded when the rear bolt broke
b) replacing the front spring when I discovered that both the front bolts had broken and had been driven on for several thousand miles after the fact, ruining the threads inside the spring.

Re: removing the ball joint

a) hitting it with a hammer from the top, if not done correctly, will mushroom the bolt, ruining it.
b) the ball joint seperator is best. Just buy a new dust cover, as the old one will be fubar.
c) you could just remove the inside bolts and the a-arm will swing clear... just be sure to mark the position of the cams... then again, you should re-align your car once you lower it anyway....

 

Those pics are of the rear suspension. I cant see how a cut bushing would cause that. There have been posts of the same problem with bushings that have not been cut.

Also, when cutting the bushing in the rear you dont remove the whole bushing like most do with the front. Just trim a rib off the top and maybe bottom depending on how low you want to go.

 

Top pic is one of the front bolts. Bottom are of the rear. Both fronts broke, one rear did. I didn't notice the fronts had broken until I went to replace the bolts. My rear bolts had 1/3 bushings, as pictured.

They break because the bushings absorb the 'bending' forces which occur due to geometry changes as the suspension moves. Normally, the bushing does the bending; the bolt is forced to bend much more than it's designed for once the bushing is removed. Many cycles of bending = metal fatigue.

Kinda like a paperclip.

 

The front bolts breaking kinda makes sense, but even if they do break you wont be left stranded. One question though, if the front bolts broke how do you have the peice with the disk? From the pic it looks like the bolt broke above the leaf spring. There shouldnt be any stress on that part of the bolt.

The rears still had bushing material correct? I still dont think cutting a 1/4" out of the bushing will make the bolt break. Like I said there have been posts of the rear bolts breaking on stock cars.

 

The front bolts both broke about 1.5 threads into the spring, on the bottom side of the spring. They were held in place by the geometry of where they're located...it's hard to explain, but if you're messing with the front suspension, you can see how they're trapped in place. It ruined the threads in the spring, completely stripping the bottom two or or three threads; I guess I could have run a tap through and reused the spring, but I picked up a new one off the c5 parts here. I can make some better picks when I'm at the garage next weekend, but the tops are polished from the spring riding on them.

The rears had a full 1/3 bushing, top and bottom.

The front bolts look like they started with 1/3 bushing but it got rubbed off, and by the time I removed them, there was metal to metal contact between them and the a-arm.

edit: one more thing, re: the front bolts... mine had about an 1/2" of bolt visible under the spring, or one inch from the nut... I guess if you screw them almost all the way in, it'll reduce the bending moment the bolt some, lessening the probablility of the failure I encountered... however unless it's all the way to the spring, the moment will still be quite a bit larger than it was designed for.

 

PHEW! After several house of wrestling with the damn A-arm and tearing up the edges of everything down there, I just ended up prying the leaf spring with a crowbar type thing while I hand twisted the bolt out and it baaarely cleared it. So I got one bolt out without totally dropping the arm. I think this might be a first? Now to get the other side done tomorrow.

 

*sigh* my luck I get to the other side and the nut and bolt holding the sway bar to the A-arm is not only seized/stuck, its practically welded together. The bolt spins with the nut when I turn it. You can't get ANY FORCE on the thing because you have to use a screw driver with a bit to hold the bolt while you turn the nut. Messed up my hand appling to much pressure.

anybody know a way to get this thing unstuck/out?

 

Liquid wrench or PB blaster as stated earlier.
If that doesn't work you could try applying some heat with a torch to the nut.

 

IMHO whenever working on the front or rear supension, you need to rent (many are free to loan) a ball joint tool kit from your local auto store. I 'rented' one from Advanced Auto this past summer when I had to replace the front right wheel bearing. Kit contains the proper pickle forks, presses and clamps you need to safely seperate the ball joints from the steering knuckles. Banging on it with a hammer can only be bad for the parts and the ball joints. Best part, the tool kit usually costs nothing to 'borrow'.

 

Back from battle, and I am all done. Found a plug-in electric screw driver and it took it out with some force. Amazing what having the right tools can do, I did this all with a small cheap tool kit from wally world; but the bolts are out! Cant wait to drive it and see how she sits afterwards.