lower control arm '93

Does anyone have any tricks up their sleeve to free up a
cradle-to-control arm bolt? I got the nut off, but am unable to get the
bolt to come out of the cradle/frame. Are there any special tools for
this? I think it is so stuck/corroded to the inner sleeve control arm
bushing that I believe a press of some sort is needed. This little job's
getting the best of me.

Also am still wondering if Saturn uses some sort of loctite on the jam
nut that locks the tie rod ends to the threaded shaft linkage? I could
not get the tie rod jam nuts free on either side. Not having a real
great time of this as you can probably surmise!

Hopefully TIA - CB

 

Just realized that Sears did my last 4 wheel alignment and that they
very likely may have put loctite on those jam-nuts. So I know that
somewhere I have a propane torch.......

Still hoping for advice on that cradle bolt. Thanks, I hope... CB

 

I had to cut mine off with a dremal tool. After trying and soaking in
penetrating oil for 2 days, I still had no luck. I attempted to create some
tool to pull/press out the bolt, but there just is not room. I also tried to
torch it but other than the rubber bushing catching on fire it did not
budge. I cut each bushing one by one very carefully.

 

Hi Mike,

I am EXACTLY where you were. Soaked the bugger all weekend with trying
everything to put some pressure on the bolt while trying to back it out
at the same time. Tried this with a cantilevered C-Clamp which did not
help. Tried an impact driver on the end of the bolt, again nothing. I
spent hours & hours trying to break it free by using a breaker bar and
socket as well as drive punches. I can't believe that my whole weekend
was spent trying to get that out <"$#@&*("> bolt out and could not. The
other side was clean as a whistle. Figures.

Having remembered your earlier post regarding this, I did dig out my
dremel tool late this afternoon & did a dry run on the one control arm I
did get out. A while back I saw & picked up some heavy duty cut-off
discs, in Walmart I think, specifically for these dremel tools and man
they really held up. In fact I didn't even break one of them while
cutting up that one control arm. I can see that this is, most
definitely, the way the little bastard is coming out tomorrow!!!! I
thank you for this tip, as absolutely nothing else at my disposal will
get it done. I really wonder how the Saturn mechanics get them out.
Thanks again Mike - CB

 

Good luck - Keep a steady hand so as not to nick the bolt box on the frame.
You'll have to do some fancy work as you get close to each end where the arm
and bushings sit inside the box, but a careful steady hand and it took me
about 30-45 minutes to cut one side off. After I was done I cursed myself
for not having got to it sooner. As you say, wasted 2 days. - Well sort
of - I was changing the clutch and shocks at the same time, so I would
re-spray the control arm, let it sit while I worked elsewhere, and keep
giving it another try. When all other jobs were wrapped up, that was it,
that control arm was coming out one way or another :-|

Which side was (is) corroded. Mine was the right side. Just wondering if the
road spray patterns under the car leads to one side being more problematic
than the other?

 

I hope to score that inner sleeve enough to crack it, hopefully to not
damage the bolt. Getting the control arm metal off and the rubber out,
or mostly out, may expose the sleeve so that I might be better able to
un-freeze the bugger.

The problem control arm side is the driver side. I also noticed the
engine cradle is much more rusted on this driver side, probably where
the snow and slush hits it most. Not great seeing this!

Anyway, as you say, this thing is coming out! Thanks - CB

 

Hey Mike,

That last lower control arm bolt is out. The dremel did it's thing
except I couldn't get close to the frame bracket to really get that last
inner bushing sleeve too well. I first cut the arm right in the middle
and knocked one half of the control arm off the sway bar. Got the ball
joint out and then proceeded with the problem end near the frame. What
an absolute bugger! With just the sleeve fused to the bolt I applied the
propane to it and that didn't free it up. After a few hours of banging
the hell out of it and using what I thought might work and didn't, I
then found an old small pipe wrench that bit into the dremel cuts I made
on the sleeve and worked a breaker bar & 6 sided hardened socket to
put pressure onto the bolt/sleeve. The pipe wrench held in place by the
frame. It finally broke. I still had to work it to get it free enough to
drive it out by consistently turning the bolt and putting additional
pressure against the other end of the bolt to drive it out. By the time
I got the bolt out, it's threads were damaged. So I need to get that
bolt first thing and wrap this episode up. I am hurting all over, from
one lousy bolt!

Again, thanks Mike for the dremel tip. I could not have done job this
without using it. CB