Lower Front Wishbone Removal

tim wood · Post by **tim wood** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 6:40 pm

Guys, i am trying without success to remove the bolt which holds the shock absorber in place on the lower wishbone. The bolt is now in such a state that I see the only answer is to remove the forward part of the wishbone and have the bolt pressed out. The bolt no longer passes through the rearward part of the wishbone (dont ask why). My question is: can i remove this front wishbone arm without going through the whole process of dismantling (and resetting the front suspension.

all ideas gratefully received.

Tim

Moeregaard · Post by **Moeregaard** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 8:09 pm

Ouch! Not a fun job, especially if that bolt has never been removed. The steel shock bushing sleeve is usually seized to the bolt.

If you disengage the wishbone from the torsion bar splines, you will need to re-set the suspension ride height, unless you're able to mark things very accurately prior to disassembly.

When I went through this exercise, I turned some new bushing from 302 stainless and lathered everything up with copper paste during reassembly.

Post by **1954Etype** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 8:13 pm

tim wood wrote:Guys, i am trying without success to remove the bolt which holds the shock absorber in place on the lower wishbone. The bolt is now in such a state that I see the only answer is to remove the forward part of the wishbone and have the bolt pressed out. The bolt no longer passes through the rearward part of the wishbone (dont ask why). My question is: can i remove this front wishbone arm without going through the whole process of dismantling (and resetting the front suspension.

all ideas gratefully received.

Tim

Tim, I have successfully removed these with heat - lots of it!

kingzetts · Post by **kingzetts** » Fri Feb 25, 2011 9:08 am

I have two "last resort" suggestions I'd be tempted to try before removing the suspension arm which is not a fun job because of the torsion bar.

1) Get two solid pieces of steel bar about 3" long, drill a hole in the middle of each of them, in one case big enough to clear the shock bolt, in the other to tap the hole to accept a bolt just smaller in diameter than the shock bolt. Drill more holes at the outer ends of the bars so they can be bolted together with the wishbone arm sandwiched between them and use the bolt in the threaded hole to press on the end of the shock bolt - in effect try to replicate the action of a press with the wishbone on the car. Use lots of heat at the same time. Cutting the shock bolt off flat with the wishbone might help to seat the head of the pressing bolt (although it sounds like you may already have achieved the same result!)

2) CAREFULLY drill a hole through the centre of the shock bolt sufficiently smaller than the bolt diameter that you'd be confident of not going outside the bolt into the arm, heat the wishbone arm as hot as you can, and use a bolt/nut/socket arrangement to try to pull the stump of the bolt out. Lots of heat again.

Easier to sketch than describe but I'm at work so can't right now!

tim wood · Post by **tim wood** » Sun Feb 27, 2011 1:14 pm

Guys, thanks for all your help and advice.
I think Ive contracted shipwrights on this job - despite promising myself I wouldnt. I'm going to take out the torsion bars and rebuild from there onwards.
As had been said its not a fun job and the car is fighting all the way. Every nut undone and every bolt removed is a small triumph. Im at the point where"all" i have to do now is undo the front fulcrum blocks.

On a positive note i,m able to use all the items ive squirrelled away until such time as the suspension rebuild was due.

This job started as just replacing the brake backplates I saw as a bargain purchase on e-bay.......

regards to all

Tim

ChrisC · Post by **ChrisC** » Sun Feb 27, 2011 2:39 pm

Like you I was unable to get this bolt out and even with the wishbone off the car and in a vice - it was still highly reluctant to come apart. Ultimately it took a lot of heat (oxy acetylene) and an angry club hammer. Once moving it was easy enough to drift out. You will probably find other parts of the front suspension won't come apart either and they too will require copious amounts of heat.

tim wood · Post by **tim wood** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 3:04 pm

Guys, a brief update;
Sometimes its useful to have a mate who has a mate with a 30 tonne press. Turns hours of work into minutes and just cost me favour with his PC. (which my son did anyway)

(Wishbone problems - never heard of them, but i have'nt put it back together yet !)

Tim

ChrisC · Post by **ChrisC** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 4:05 pm

Nope sorry thats cheating... go and buy some rusty units and then spend weeks trying to get them apart

its character building apparently

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Lower Front Wishbone Removal

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