Sure, Kenny. Rub it in.
Only when I
really needed it did I discover, on a Sunday, that my oxygen tank is empty...
You have no idea how badly I wanted to use that torch today...
Tell ya what though, that sissy little axle bracket is mighty flimsy and would not cotton to much exposure to the heat necessary to cut the head and cam off that bolt. Man, that bracket bent easily!
Now I know why the least little slop in the trackbar shows up so badly. There is NO lateral strength in those brackets at all. They are
so thin, just stamped sheet metal, I can't believe they even hold up under ideal conditions.
****************************************************
Mark,
"
I used a torch to carefully burn it out from the ends just enough to let the arm fall out. "
If I had a functioning torch, I would have tried that. I have used this method to remove leafspring bushings before. But I don't think it would have helped in this case.
The problem was the thick inner steel sleeve was hopelessly corroded to the bolt. It was
so bad, that after using a hydraulic jack to try to turn the bolt (while also hammering on it), all I accomplished was to break the bond between the sleeve and the factory rubber bushing. So now the bolt and the bushing were still "welded" together and freespinning inside the bushing, inside the control arm... What a delimma!
All my pounding was a joke since the rubber and the opposite side of the axle bracket just cushioned each blow. Even after forgetting all fantasies of saving the bolt and getting out the 8 pound sledge hammer and a long piece of barstock to get a "manly swing" at it, all I did was bend the axle bracket on the inside. Badly.
Fortunately, I have no intention of reusing the control arms. I just want to install my tubular, adjustable ones. The upper bolt came out easily and I'm hoping both bolts on both upper control arms do the same. I will not even fool around with the other eccentric bolt and plan to just torch the center of the control arm all the way through.
This brings up something else: Please bear with me as I try my best to describe my observations:
The stock bushings are typical bonded rubber-to-sleeve/rubber-to-outer shell bushed. The new control arms have poly bushings.
The stockers rely
entirely on the torsional twist of the rubber for control arm movement; there is no "pivot" point since the inner sleeve is crushed by the bolt against the walls of the axle bracket and is bonded to the rubber and the outer metal sleeve is also bonded to the rubber and is a very tight press fit into the arm.
There are three possible "pivot points" in the new poly bushing setup since poly will not allow much, if any, torsional twist like rubber does:
1> The outer bushing surface to control arm
a> this is unlikely since the ends of the new arms are mild steel round tubing with a weld seam on the inside that acts like a keyway and effectively prohibits free spinning of the poly bushing in them.
2> The inner sleeve to bolt
a> also unlikely since the axle bracket crushes down firmly against the sleeve prohibiting free movement. Which would be a bad thing anyway since the sleeve end would quickly wear through the thin wall of the bracket.
3> The outer surface of the inner sleeve to the inner surface of the poly bushing.
a> This is where the pivot movement must happen. The inner sleeve is held stationary by the crush effect of the bolt. The poly bushing is held stationary by the weld seam inside the control arm end. Therefore, the poly bushing and sleeve can only pivot against each other.
b> clamping the ends of new control arms in a vice to simulate the clamping force of the bolt when installed bears out this point as being the only way the arms can pivot at all.
Therefore, before I install these new control arms, I intend to drill them for grease zerks that will (hopefully) allow grease to penetrate between the poly bushings and the inner sleeve. There is a slight gap in the center where the two poly bushing halves meet that I hope to exploit. I also plan to drill a small hole in the inner sleeve in hopes a little grease finds it's way between the sleeve and bolt to prevent future disassembly nightmares like this.
Am I missing anything here and do you, or anyone else, have any suggestions or comments about what I have described and plan to do?
thanks!
scott
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