Postby Aerodan » Fri Jul 28, 2017 6:44 pm
OMG that was one of the harder things to fix!!! Here's what I did!
Big thanks to the last fella that mentioned the Sawzall. Thus job needed one!
My problem was the bottom bolt that goes through the rear shock had fused to the shock collar. When I got a 4' breaker bar on the bolt, the bolt would turn, and the shock collar would turn too. The rubber bushing around the shock collar would spin against the shock. For five days I tried Liquid Wrench and a ton of hammering. That didn't work for either of the rear shocks.
For one shock, I took the Sawzall to it and cut about halfway through the bolt. The bolt is incredibly tough to cut through!!! After cutting for 20+ minutes, I was only about halfway through the bolt. I sprayed it with more liquid wrench and hammered away. To my surprise, the bolt broke free of the collar and I was able to get it out! It might have been the heat generated by the Sawzall, or it might have been the vibration that helped free the bolt.
I wasn't so lucky with the other side. I had to cut all the way through the bolt! I ruined a couple saw blades before I bought a diamond cut blade for cast iron. It took well over half an hour of patient sawing to get through the bolt. I occasionally turned the bolt a bit to saw away at different sides of it.
Unfortunately, the nut that is retained had threads stripped on both sides. I guess my trying to get the bolt out by turning it stripped some threads in the nuts. Once again, I busted out the Sawzall. I cut the metal bracket retaining the nut off so I could get the nut out and replace it.
Also, the top bolts holding the shocks in were fused to the shock collars as well!!! SOB! To get those loose, I did something a bit different. I couldn't easily get the Sawzall up in there. Instead, I actually TIGHTENED the nut holding the bolt on. Tightening the nut made the metal mounting bracket clamp harder down on the shock collar. Next I simply put the breaker bar on the bolt (not the nut) and was able to loosen it.
Holy crap that was wayyyyyy more difficult than it should be!!! If the bolts weren't fused, the job would have taken me 90 minutes per side. Instead it took me days and multiple trips to the hardware store (buy Sawzall, buy replacement blades, buy new bolts, buy liquid wrench).
Hopefully my post helps others that encounter the same problem!
-Dan