salt belt - removing suspension bolts

[Blueshound]

Those are barely even rusty by New England standards. They don't even have cotter pins! I'd think those will come right out with a bit of penetrating oil and an impact gun.

 

[JHZR2]

If you’re not a professional - that is a steep price.

If you are - it’s both faster and safer than acetylene and much faster than propane or MAPP.

If you happen to have a professional quality set of tools, and live in the salt belt, like me, this is very attractive, regardless of price.

On recent cars the finishes on fasteners help a lot. I’ve done a lot on our odyssey suspension in the last year and every bolt came out unphased and clean.

As opposed to my 445k mile Ram where time and salt just did a job on the bolts…

 

[GSCJR]

There is a very good chance it will be a sawzall job, I have run into this numerous times, you will get the nut off okay but the bolt is totally seized in the bushing sleeve, heat and impact have little or no effect on them.

+1

 

[Exhaustgases]

And unlike spark plugs, this is where to use lots of grease and or lots of good anti seize on the threads. If your concerned about needing loctite, I wouldn't I'd be drilling them for safety wire or welding a stop plate on them, that is if you ever plan to take them out again.

 

[ElectroMechanoMan]

I use blue locktite on many fasteners and I use it as a sealant on aluminum threads. Loctite helps keep the dissimilar metals (aluminum/steel) insulated so it lessens corrosion. It also helps with brake components. They won’t loosen and the sealing action keeps them from seizing.

 

[Astro14]

I use blue locktite on many fasteners and I use it as a sealant on aluminum threads. Loctite helps keep the dissimilar metals (aluminum/steel) insulated so it lessens corrosion. It also helps with brake components. They won’t loosen and the sealing action keeps them from seizing.

I use blue loctite on suspension bolts, and caliper bolts. Yep, a bit harder to remove, but not as bad as rust, and like you said, they’re sealed up, so, they don’t rust as bad.

More secure. More consistent.

 

[JTK]

Like Trav said, it's not the bolts/nuts that is going to get you. It's the bushing. The rubber is likely going to be fused to the bushing, or the bushing fused to the bolt.

A good quality sawzall blade will go through it like butta.

 

[Donald]

My Dad at times would use a carbon arc torch but instead of creating an arc he would put each of the electrodes directly on the bolt. The bolt heats up with the electricity going through it.

 

[Trav]

My Dad at times would use a carbon arc torch but instead of creating an arc he would put each of the electrodes directly on the bolt. The bolt heats up with the electricity going through it.

I can still smell those things when you posted about using one.

 

[Exhaustgases]

I use blue locktite on many fasteners and I use it as a sealant on aluminum threads. Loctite helps keep the dissimilar metals (aluminum/steel) insulated so it lessens corrosion. It also helps with brake components. They won’t loosen and the sealing action keeps them from seizing.

Using a sealant is fine, but globbing expensive thread lock can end up making the bolt harder to remove and the part of it that is slightly exposed will rust and then break. If you like loctite everyplace you should work on a 2004 murano, every bolt is either loctited or way over tightened. Like maybe 150 ftlb plus for a 10mm bolt, worse vehicle ever to work on, and not breaking too many bolts was a miracle.

 

[ElectroMechanoMan]

That’s a situation like someone using way too much never sieze. A drop or 2 near the end of the fastener is enough. I hate it when people put so much never sieze on a bolt that if you walk within 10 ft of it, you look like a tin refugee from the wizard of oz!