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I'm about to drop my rear cradle. Before I do, I have been removing the suspension and just got the passenger half shaft free of the diff. The upper control arms are disconnected. The shock is removed. The leaf and sway are removed. All wiring is disconnected and out of the way, along with ebrake line.
The rearward lower control bolt has been left in place and is freely removable with the nut removed.
I had to use a 2 foot breaker bar to get the nut off the front lower control arm bolt. This is the cam bolt. Now that the nut is removed, the bolt is steadfast in the hole. I have tried lifting and shifting the assembly attached to it in an attempt to find a clean angle to remove it from. No luck. Of note, the assembly is supported currently by an atv jack.
Before I go back out after dinner and romp on this bolt, I'm hoping for knowledge or advice that could help. I don't want to bugger the threads. And I don't know if I can just take a hammer to it or not.
I've done these once many years ago. It wasn't a problem as I recall. Not sure why I'm stuck now.
You have removed way more than you need to to drop the rear cradle. Remove the caliper, remove the exhaust, unbolt the shock at the top, remove the e brake cable, unbolt the top a arm, pull the half shafts, both sides for this. Support the trans and diff unbolt the 4 cradle bolts drop the cradle.
you don't need to do anything with the spring, lower control arms
Last edited by feeder82; Apr 19, 2020 at 09:28 PM.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
C5 of Year Winner (performance mods) 2019
if you have an extra jack laying around put that under the lower balljoint and jack it up enough to take the weight off that bolt and it should come out without too much cussing... if you have a dead blow hammer that will help and not risk beating the threads up
I see. I interpreted your picture as though the spring was still in the game. Everything looks remarkably clean from where I'm sitting but maybe there is just some schmoo inside the bushing sleeve holding onto the bolt. Have you tried any penetrating spray? And as you say, a touch of the anger and a deadblow hammer may be the ticket here. It does seem strange to me that it is holding on so tightly.
I am having flashbacks of helping my buddy put a lift on his old Jeep XJ...the leaf spring bolts had completely rusted themselves to the sleeve inside the bushing and instead of the bolt coming out it just twisted the sleeve free of the rubber. I don't even want to go into what we had to do to get it out....
Oharal - Everything is ok until you have to pull out the tap set!
Feeder82 - I could cry seeing that spacious garage and lift right now. I used to have a horse farm when I was married and would just pull the cars over to the tractor bay on the far side. Space for days. I'm happily divorced and living a happier life, but have a narrow single bay garage I'm doing all this from for now.
Weird. It came out with a tap of my hand today. Try as I might, I must have had the bushing jammed up on it or something. It clearly settled or relaxed. That was easy!
Lower Control Arm - Cam Bolt Removal
