Suspension bolts are hardened, that's why it took me a while with the drill bits. The bits don't last terribly long. I did spend a day drilling before I decided to cut a part of the LCA/bolt, so that was a bit redundant. It was a bit difficult to drill up into the bolt.

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1984 300TD

I would imagine its a hardened bolt but you should be able to cut it, just use the correct blade for hardened metal. I had to drill out one of my lower ball joints on the steering knuckle and I just took my time AND used a good drill bit.

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1983 300SD
200000miles

How about using a small hydraulic jack to "press" it out? Unfortunately, unless they were put in backwards last time, you'd have to push from the front towards the back and I can't think of much to push against.

Worse comes to worse, you might try getting at it from below. The UCA alloy is pretty soft, and you might be able to cut it off from around the bolt with a hacksaw, even by hand. That won't free the bolt directly, but it'll allow direct access to the stuck part of the assembly.

AlsoI'm curious (for future reference) if the bolt head could have been torqued off? Or is that pretty much impossible with these hardened bolts?

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'83 300DTurbo http://badges.fuelly.com/images/smallsig-us/318559.png

Broadband: more lies faster.

uote=patbob;1622172]How about using a small hydraulic jack to "press" it out? [qUnfortunately, unless they were put in backwards last time, you'd have to push from the front towards the back and I can't think of much to push against.

Worse comes to worse, you might try getting at it from below. The UCA alloy is pretty soft, and you might be able to cut it off from around the bolt with a hacksaw, even by hand. That won't free the bolt directly, but it'll allow direct access to the stuck part of the assembly.

AlsoI'm curious (for future reference) if the bolt head could have been torqued off? Or is that pretty much impossible with these hardened bolts?[/quote]


that bit about the hydraulic jack is genius. That may break it loose enough to get it the rest of the way out. If that doesn't work I have the sawzall. My feeling on torqueing the head off is that first the inner sleeve would break free from the surrounding bushing and/or sleeve and then just spin. It seems mercedes owners are divided into two distinct camps here, those whose bolts just slide out and those of us who have to fight them out. My car has never seen a salted road either. Weird.

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1985 300D Gretchen (Astral Silver) 220k
1983 240D 4-speed Evelyn (Orient Red) 203k


TANSTAAFL

so I just cut through the UCA to frame bolt with the sawzall. It took about 20 minutes, most of that time was spent trying to see what I was doing so I didn't cut through something other than the bolt. I cut from under the car between the bushing and the frame, and once the rear side was cut I pulled the UCA back and pinned it under the sway bar giving me freer access to the opposite side.

Now I just need to find a replacement bolt. Hopefully NAPA or somebody like that can hook me up, none of the online mercedes parts stores seem to carry that kind of hardware. BTW the drivers side UCA bolt slid right out. Thanks for the help and responses all.

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1985 300D Gretchen (Astral Silver) 220k
1983 240D 4-speed Evelyn (Orient Red) 203k


TANSTAAFL

Measure the other bolt, that may help in procuring another one.

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83 SD

84 CD

Got it in my pocket. I'll post its size and type for future generations. Woo-Hoo is spot on.

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1985 300D Gretchen (Astral Silver) 220k
1983 240D 4-speed Evelyn (Orient Red) 203k


TANSTAAFL

So the day started real nice...bright sunshine and a forecast for more of the same all the way to Canada Day. Headed over to Bens Lover's hse and we started off with the UCA removal. Popped steering knuckle from UCA, unbolted swaybar bushing, took off cone and washer then found we could not remove the bushings from the swaybar. Never mind, lets do remove the bolts inside the engine bay.

Nut came off easy. The bolt tough, just spins and spins. Its not going to screw out. We went at it with everything we got. Doesn't even budge a hair!

Screw it. Lets do the tie-rods. One actually had a grease nipple on the end of the tie-rod! Anyway, changed them both out and then tried the UCA bolts again. No go. Still got the LCA ball joints to do. Geez. Tired and frustrated as hell. Packed everything up and drove home gingerly.

A dump truck burns on the highway. They close it for 4 hours. I'm stuck in the middle with no lunch, no water and no answers. I have the manual and quite a few printouts with me. I read them back to back and nowhere does it mention that this bolt can be a beatch.

Until I found this post. Yep its been a fun day. Any ideas?

Oh and Dan...thanks for being such a good-natured, even-tempered guy. It was great working with you

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1987 300TD
1984 300D
755,000 KM and going strong
BC Canada

Hey anytime Zu!
We still have to figure out a way to remove the bolt from the UCA,If we are not successful with that,maybe your alignment specialist might surely be able to do that.Its very frustrating to fight with this since there is not much room to wiggle around the top.Those tie rods were a breeze to do but whats left is a head bashing one!
Hey Bob in Virginia,any ideas that we may not of thought about?
Keep us all posted.
Many regards to all
Dan Richmond BC

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Cheers
Big Dan MEng

Visit my Blog..
http://allformercedesbenz.blogspot.com/

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If at first you don't succeed,
Skydiving is not for you.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS NO
MATCH FOR NATURAL STUPIDITY.

If anything can go wrong,fix it!
The hell with Murphy!!
I never think of the future.It comes soon enough.

I'd say its sawzall time. Are you replacing the UCA's? or were you going to re-use them? if it spins, the bushing inside is prolly shot, too- allowing the bolt and sleeve to spin.

are you still driving the car at this time?

I'd say order in all your parts and cut the Beatch out of there.

on the sway to uca stuff- I used a ratcheting tie down wrapped around the bumper to pull the uca forward enough to gain access.

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1984 123.193 372,xxx miles, room for Seven.

1999 Dodge Durango Cummins 4BTAA 47RE 5k lb 4x4 getting 25+mpgs, room for Seven.

It's not threaded inside the bushing is it? Cant you just tap it out with a hammer now that the nut is off?

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

Man, we tried everything. Even my holding a drift and Dan swinging away at that bloody bolt with two hands and it didn't even budge a hair! Can't imagine what could be holding it in there?? The bolt is loose, spins freely, the UCA is loose (detached from the swaybar and steering knuckle balljoint)...we just can't figure it out.

I'm worried that if we cut off the bolt end (not much room on the master cylinder side too), where does that leave us? We already know it doesn't move what if it gets stuck in there

On the other hand, I have to marvel at how mercedes made that part of the body so strong that repeat misses on the bolt doesn't even dent the metal much

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1987 300TD
1984 300D
755,000 KM and going strong
BC Canada

Ouch.. I feel for you. Dealing with this can't be fun. Here's what you're facing..

Inside the bushing is a steel tube that the bolt goes through. When the bolt is tightened down, the body of the car clams on that tube. It used to be attached to the rubber of the bushing, and isn't supposed to detach, but it apparently did. The bolt isn't supposed to get stuck in the steel tube, but apparently it did that too.

I was lucky when I did mine and neither bolt was siezed, but as I see it, there's only two options left -- remove the bolt head (and threaded part?) by cutting it off so you can pull the UCA out, or get the tube unstuck off the bolt with a torch.

If I had a torch, I'd go that route -- the UCA alloy is very soft and, while there isn't much room under there to cut it off the bushing, you should be able to cut it off hand with a naked hacksaw blade if you can't use an appropriate power tool. That route seems like a lot less work than trying to cut the head (and maybe the threaded end too) off with a metal cutting blade on a power tool.

If you decide to cut the head off, make sure you'll have enough clearance to remove it once it's cut off. You don't want to cut it off from above, only to find you need to repeat the job from underneath because the tube won't shift far enough to let the stub ends out (as I recall, it won't, but check for yourself.. even I don't trust my memory very far these days).

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'83 300DTurbo http://badges.fuelly.com/images/smallsig-us/318559.png

Broadband: more lies faster.