tomcarey88

in the process of removing the leaf spings i have to remove the shakle an in doing so the bolt desides to snap .....i need some advice on the best way to remove it ....i know normaly u would drill a hole then use a bit to remove it.....but theres no room to fit a drill ??????

Jeepcrazy5722

Is it broken off on the nut that is welded to the inside of your frame? If so cut through the bottom of your frame with a grinder and use a chisel to to cut through the nut.

tomcarey88

the head broke off.....im going to try an weld a nut on an take it off

dyte2004

use plenty penitrating fluid before you start to remove it thats all ican say but i had same issue i drilled a hole in a bit of flat bar and welded it trought the hole to the bolt once it broke free i cut the bar and used vice grips to remove it

BillyBoy

I hope welding the nut on works, but if it doesn't, and you're junking the old leaf springs anyhow, cut the spring free from the wrap around part. Cut through the casing on the spring that is wrapped around the bolt and bushing from left to right. You can grab the wrapped around part with a pair of large channel locks and spin it to cut it again. After 2 or three cuts across it, you will have the bushing exposed. You can use a razor knife (i used my pocket knife) to painfully cut away the bushing. This will leave the bolt (still wrapped in the inner metal casing) exposed. I cut that with a Metabo, although you can use a sawzALL also. You might have to hold onto the casing around the bolt as it might spin. I cut it to about midway, so I could pull half the bolt out, pull out half the spinning metal case off the bolt, then slide over the rest of the casing and pulled that out also. Now, essentially, you have helf the bolt, exposed, on the inside of the shackle. You should then be able to either use a pair of vise grips, or if that doesn't work, I had alot of success with a 7 inch pipe wrench. The teeth on the pipe wrench really grabs well, the only downfall is that you can only turn it about 1/8 inch at a time. You can at least use the pipe wrench, with a 3 foot piece of pipe on the end to break the bolt free.


Of course... you could just try to take the shackels off... and hope those bolts wont break, leaving the shackle on the spring untril it's out from under the rig so you can work on that bolt in a little better area of your garage/barn.

Worst case scenario, new shackes and all new bolts... and 3 or 4 blades for the sawzAll or Metabo.


Good-luck,
don't give up.

tomcarey88

welding didnt work....the spring is off as is the shackle......so theres abot one inch of the bolt hanging out all of wich is threaded ..vice grips dont work....my next step is to i guess go et a torch an heat it up an try to turn it out

razor02097

Is it the shackle to frame bolt?

BillyBoy

Man, I'm telling you... pipe 7 inch pipe wrench.

Close it almost all the way so you can get it on the bolt, and it will grab it... even if visegrips won't.

You gotta make sure the wrench is facing the right way.
You also gotta make sure you have one small enough to fit in there. About 9$ at ACO.

MAP gas might help also. Bang the bolt around while it's hot.
Good-luck.

wildspear

You at lest talked me into it, next time I'm at the store I'm getting a few different sizes of "monkey" wrench's

tomcarey88

while i wuz fighting the bolt issue,the ups mab showed up withe my lift kit ..so i got the front 95% done

tomcarey88

i wuz at my dads shop an got some thrust....pb blaster on steroidsx10 ....so hopefully after a fiew days of soaking it will break free,i finaly got the other side off,damn bushing

tomcarey88

finaly got the damn bolt out