upper control arm bolt
 

is stuck, won't turn at all and I can't get anything on it from the rear/ back of the car side to beat it out, just not enough room to work. Anybody come up with a solution when confronted with similar problems? I'm trying to get the new UCA's in as well as tie-rod ends, lower ball joints (which are already pressed in) wheel bearing and new rotors done this weekend. Stumped right out of the gate. Help.:confused:

btw
 

The bolt i'm having problems with is the inner UCA bolt, the one thats accessed from under the hood.

UCA bolts
 

Mine came right out. Of course, I had the sway bars and bushings out, and the steering knuckle disconnected so the arm was just "floating" and I could maneuver it around so all the tension was removed from the UCA to frame bushings. Is your UCA completely free, or is stuff still bolted to it?

The rest of us might be a little less stumped if you told us what car you are working on!!!

sorry...1985 300D. The sway bar end of the UCA is loose but still around the sway bar. I can move it a couple inches, prob can get it off the sway bar if that will help. Im going to the store to get another torch, just propane for heating purposes, that's all I can think of short of grinding the head off the bolt and beating it out from the front side. Its soaked down with deep creep right now. I've heard people refer to their own horror stories with this particular bolt, but no-one elaborated.

and the steering knuckle is off the car...lets see what else can I neglect to mention...:rolleyes:

Do you have the LCA jacked up to take up the tension created by the coil spring? The coil spring, uca and swaybar link are all interconnected it looks like.

yes there's no load on the UCA. I just removed the front shock and coil spring. Its floating there. Heated both ends of the stud with a MAPP gas torch for 5 minutes, the bushings started to melt and smoke and I got the stud to break loose from whatever's inside, i.e. it now turns freely. But unfortunately it still won't come out. I've now taken the battery and battery tray out and a coolant line so I can get a clear shot with a hammer. Not happening. It won't budge.

That may have made things worse. There is a steel sleeve in the center of the rubber bushing. The bolt is probably rusted to the steel sleeve. The heat most likely allowed the sleeve to break loose from the rubber. Now you won't be able to break the bolt loose by turning it.

i dont think it was going to come off anyway. I mean beating on it with a 3 lb maul didn't budge it. Anybody else been here feel free to chime in. It looks as though I'm heading for drilling the stud out, but don't really have any way to do that. This sucks.

This may sound like an awful idea but could you get a saws all in there and cut the UCA off or even the bolt on both sides of the UCA and just get a new one.

I recently had a frozen bolt on the LCA on my Honda. I rounded broke a ratchet, rounded the head of the bolt, and spent about 3 days drilling it out. I wish those @*$%&*$%s didn't design suspension bolts to seize.

I was able to get a grinder with a cutting wheel on half of the LCA/bolt connection. I wrapped everything with aluminum foil as a spark shield and cut half the bolt, in half lengthwise. Then I just wore out a bunch of drill bits drilling. Get the cobalt tipped Dewalt bits from Home Depot/Lowes. they did the best job for me.

Mine came right out, sorry to hear of your troubles, good luck.

3 days!!! DOH!

Just a standard metric bolt? Nothing special about it? I'm holding the sawzall right now, with an impish grin. :D