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1993 245: I'm doing struts and was disconnecting stuff so I can remove the strut assembly to lay it on the floor where I can apply a lot of pressure to loosen a rusted gland nut. I've read that removing the three large nuts that hold the ball joint to the control arm can throw the alignment off, so I decided to remove the four small bolts that hold the ball joint assembly to the bottom of the strut assembly instead. My problem is the head broke off the first bolt I tried! The other three came out as they should.
1. What's the best way to remove the rest of the stuck bolt? I don't think there is enough to grab onto with vice-grips or anything like that. The whole strut assembly will be on the bench tomorrow.
2 The ball joint assembly doesn't want to come loose from the strut assembly. Can I hit it with a brass hammer at the seam of the two pieces? Or pry it with a screwdriver? What's the best method without breaking anything else?
Thanks in advance!
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Thanks everyone for all the help, Doug C. 81 242 Brick Off Blocks, turbo bars and wheels, M46; 86 244, B230, 155k , auto; 81 242 Turbo, intercooled, M46, 122k; 93 245, B230, M47, 153K.
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OK, here's what I've got. The strut assembly is on the bench without the ball joint. The broken bolt is showing about 1/8 inch of itself. I plan to remove the spring and strut insert first, then attack the broken bolt. I thought I'd take the advice of cutting a slot into the portion that is sticking out, then try to turn it with a large square-shafted slotted screwdriver and wrench for leverage. Right now it's soaking in PB Blaster. Should I heat up the area with a propane torch before trying to turn the bolt?? If so, I'm not sure how much heat to apply. Should I get it warm, hot, very hot, sizzling? Thanks for all the good advice. Any other tips would be appreciated.
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Thanks everyone for all the help, Doug C. 81 242 Brick Off Blocks, turbo bars and wheels, M46; 86 244, B230, 155k , auto; 81 242 Turbo, intercooled, M46, 122k; 93 245, B230, M47, 153K.
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Hi Doug,
With an eighth-inch to work with, I think slotting it would be my first strategy too. The bolt may have been stressed in tightening, so may not be frozen in the threads worse than what a slot can help with. Just go easy, and back off when it feels like the slot is going to rip out.
On the other hand, I have tried this before without success until heat was brought to bear on the problem. It was my delight to learn the use of beeswax with Mapp gas for this effort, succeeding in avoiding the "easy-out" approach a couple times with exhaust manifold studs and a cat flange. Now there's a birthday candle lurking in my toolkit. Heat it cherry, add the wax, and before the smoke clears be working the fastener left and right.
If you get to the easy-out stage, seriously adhere to vvpete's advice to drill at the center, keep perpendicular, and match the drill and extractor size to the bolt by the extractor's recommendation (research needed in my case). Too large, and the drill will remove too much material such that the extractor will expand the thread diameter. Too small, and the extractor will snap off leaving you with a piece of hardened material in the way of drilling and heli-coil last resort. I cringe each time I use a bolt extractor, hoping my feel of its twist matches my experience of what's necessary to break them. Ugh.
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Art Benstein near Baltimore
Raising teenagers is like nailing Jell-O to a tree.
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Thanks. First I figured I'd take out the strut insert, but the gland nut is tighter than I thought. I have the spring off. I tried laying the unit on the floor and applying two pipe wrenches, one on the nut and one at the thick part just below the spring seat. Sound like the right set up?? No dice even when I stand on the pipe wrench. I guess the wrenches aren't long enough. Any advice? I'm leery of heating it with the gas strut in there.
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Thanks everyone for all the help, Doug C. 81 242 Brick Off Blocks, turbo bars and wheels, M46; 86 244, B230, 155k , auto; 81 242 Turbo, intercooled, M46, 122k; 93 245, B230, M47, 153K.
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I put my strut in a vise, then used a large screwdriver and 2-1/2lb hammer to knock the nut around. After it loosened a bit, used channel locks to unscrew.
One nut did get chiseled pretty bad but I have spares.
--
1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.
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Thanks. I've tried the technique you describe on the bench. The nut receives a solid impact using a cold chisel and a 2 lb. hammer. So far the nut hasn't budged. It's been getting BP Blaster for at least five days. The passenger side came loose after a few whacks while it was still on the car. I might just have to cut my losses and go buy a stut assembly at the junkyard. I'd rather fix this one though. Any other ideas that might help? I guess I'll get my friend over here who is a lot bigger than I am, and have him bring a bigger hammer. Is an impact hammer good for this type of thing? I see some in the Ingersoll Rand catalogue. It says they're good for cutting, punching, chipping, scraping and bushing driving. What about just plain hammering, like on a stuck gland nut?
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Thanks everyone for all the help, Doug C. 81 242 Brick Off Blocks, turbo bars and wheels, M46; 86 244, B230, 155k , auto; 81 242 Turbo, intercooled, M46, 122k; 93 245, B230, M47, 153K.
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I have another prospect for removing the broken bolt that doesn't involve an easy-out, since you seem to be saying that a little of it is sticking out. Also, once you get the ball joint mounting plate off, this will be easier. As indicated in other posts, get some good penetrating oil into the bolt and all around the mounting plate. Some light tapping on a cold chisel all around the edges of the plate will help loosen it up, too. Have no fear, it will pop off eventually. A wise man (old Volvo expert Don Thibault, actually) once advised me to keep in mind that all of the gear in that part of the car is intended to have a quarter of the weight of the vehicle bouncing on it all the time, so you don't have to be too concerned about whacking it with a hammer once in a while. My philosophy is that you'll never get discouraged by a job on the car if you always bear in mind that it is within your power to hit it with a hammer.
If you have a dremel, use a reinforced cutoff wheel to cut as deep a slot in the end of the bolt as you can. If not, a hacksaw will do, but the dremel has the added attraction of heating the bolt at the same time. Then try to get it out with a flathead screwdriver. If you have screwdriver bits for a socket set, this will help, but if not, I find that a pair of channellocks on a good sized screwdriver does the trick, too.
If this doesn't work, then the slot you've cut will help you guide the drill bit to make the hole for the easy-out.
Good luck,
-EdM.
--
'90 240DL Wagon 'Lola' -- '72 1800ES 'Galadriel'
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The ball joint mount will come loose with lots of PB blaster after a few hrs.
If you have a dremel tool use a small 1/8 diameter rotary burr cuttong tool (spherical). You can find these in Wal Mart for a few bucks. They are great for grinding a dimple in the center of the bolt, something which is hard to do with a drill if the broken bolt surface is irregular. If you don't have the Dremel tool, the burr will work in a high speed hand drill. After making the dimple in the center of the bolt, drill out the exact size hole for an easy-out. Get these both new and matched. Buy a good drill bit, not cheap ones. A Porter Cable tungsten bit will be more $ but cut better with the hardened steel bolt. The hole must be in the center. If not, the easy-out will catch the threads in the strut and damage them. If by chance the drilled hole goes off center a lot, which is really not hard to do, get a small punch and collapse the drilled out bolt, use needle nose pliers, screwdriver, chisel, etc to rotate and work out the bolt pieces. It's also possible to work free the bolt while using the punch to rotate the bolt when tapping with a hammer, ccw.
If it's really rusted badly, and since you have the broken bolt, asess the rest of the strut, like the top spring mount, and if it as rusted as well, cut you losses and find a good used strut.
Just a note on strut and ball joint assembly:
When replacing either strut or ball joint (or any other front end parts with exception of stabilizer link bushings), always plan on doing a front end alignment. There are no short cuts here.
The ball joint should be removed from the lower A-Arm first and then the four bolts from the bottom of the strut, preferably while the strut is off the car in a vise.
--
'89 245 sportwagon, destroyed by hit & run driver, RIP. '04 V70 2.5 T Sportwagon, 12k mi and '91 245 5-speed, 209k mi, replaced the '89
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Hi Doug,
(1) The best way to remove a stuck bolt depends on what you find once you get it on your bench. There are many options depending on what caused it to break and how much you have above the surface, if any. Just don't break an extractor in it; that is the worst you can do.
(2) You could do either. Just a little layer of rust is gluing the two together at the very worst.
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Art Benstein near Baltimore
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Thanks, Art. I'll post back when I have it on the bench and can get a better look. I haven't had much experience with stuck bolts. I plan to work on it today.
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Thanks everyone for all the help, Doug C. 81 242 Brick Off Blocks, turbo bars and wheels, M46; 86 244, B230, 155k , auto; 81 242 Turbo, intercooled, M46, 122k; 93 245, B230, M47, 153K.
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One word of caution since i5t was not yet mentioned, when you have teh strut off the car and plan on putting it in a vise, be very careful not to dammage or bend/squish the strut tube. It is aluminum and very easy to damage.
If you've already gotten the strut off the car and are still trying to remove the top strut nut, it is near impossibe to remove this at this point (without damage) unless you have an impact wrench. I suggest that you put the whole assembly back into the strut tower, a-arm and lock the spindle/tie rod end back to the steering rack tie rod to secure it while you put a wrench onto the top nut.
--
'89 245 sportwagon, destroyed by hit & run driver, RIP. '04 V70 2.5 T Sportwagon, 12k mi and '91 245 5-speed, 209k mi, replaced the '89
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YOu need some good penetrating oil like Kroil or PB Blaster, soak it for as long as you can and if it will not budge after that then you need to move onto more persuasive techniques like the smoke wrench. For about 30 bucks or so you can get a good Mapp gas torch and gas at home depot that will warm that up nicely. If all else fails you will have to go to the bone yard and score another strut housing.
Mark
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