I'll add some pictures of the damage, but I did say that the hammer technique bent the threaded end on the one that is still stuck fast, and it broke one of the threads on the one I did get free.

Upfront, I've used a LOT of penetrating oil on this project.

From my experience yesterday, I highly recommend that you either not hammer on it with that nylock (use a fully-threaded nut), or that you break the pivot bolt loose with the impact hammer before you start wailing on the bolt/nut combo

The purpose of the nut is to prevent you from mushrooming the bolt end, right? I think the nylock has too few threads to serve as a good platform. The nylock moves around a bit because of the plastic and this put stress on the threads of the pivot bolt. I damaged the threads on the freed pivot bolt by whacking with a large hammer because the nylock rocked around while being whacked.

After I broke the hold that the old bushings had and from there I could get more penetrating oil in and work the pivot out. I found one of the threads on the pivot collapsed. I think it can be salvaged, but the other pivot is a loss.


The second pivot is completely frozen. I've gone at it with both directions with a 1/2" impact driver until the driver was too hot to touch and grease wicked out. I alternated cool-downs with strikes from the hammer on the nut-protected bolt end.

The result here was that the threaded part of the pivot bolt bent. This second one appears to be a complete loss and I still can't get it to free up.

Maye you guys have been lucky or that I just overdid it, but hammering with a nylock damaged one bolt severely and it is now useless.

My stalling problem must now take center stage, but I'll continuing to soak the remaining bolt with penetrating oil at every opportunity.