What a pain!! (rear spring rant)

[shifty]

Man!

I had about 5 hours to work on the truck today, getting the entire frame torn down, flipped, notched + welded, and get the new 73-87 front crossmember cleaned up/degreased.

No problem, I thought. I managed to tear down a nearly complete front end and rear axle just last week in 75 minutes, so this should be easy breezy.

Got startd by soaking my new 73-87 front crossmember in some of that new Simple Green "biodegradable" oven cleaner and let it soak while I started on the frame. (The stuff actually worked pretty decent when combined with a wire brush).

While that was soaking, I busted out the new cordless impact wrench... ZIPP! Panhard bar OFF! All four shocks OFF! 5 minutes spent, making good progress, I FEEL GOOD! Some bolts were well rusted in, but with 10-15 seconds of impact banging on them, they came off like butter.

Then comes the bear. I jack up one of the trailing arms to get to the spring perch nut. I'm crackin at that thing for a good 90 seconds, and it won't budge! So I shoot it down with some PB Blaster top and bottom and go back to cleaning the new front crossmember.

Come back 30 minutes later, after shooting it a couple more times with PBB, and 5 minutes of constant beating, it still won't come free.

Out comes the MAPP gas torch. Heat that joker up, then shoot it with PBB afterwards and take another crack at it.

DAMNED THING WILL NOT BUDGE.

Go to the other side and try it. SAME THING. 1 hour wasted beating away at these stupid bolts with no luck. I tried every trick in the book, including trying to tighten it more, then loosen. NOTHING WORKED.

I ended up having to get a dang cutoff disc and literally cut the head of the bolt off, then hammer the perch out, then cut the spring off near the top perch, cut the perch bracket off, then cut the stupid perch bolt out as well. Burned through two cutoff discs doing all this.

So, long story short, wasted almost 4 hours on all of this, which blew away all of the time I had to work on the truck and left my garage smelling like pure ass.

I mean, I understand now (after looking at the bolts), these springs literally have NEVER been removed. But, my damn frame is in superb condition, no rust or pitting anywhere, been well taken care of, so it had 40 good, clean years! Everything else came off like a champ, so I'm not sure why these were such a bear.

Anyways, end rant. The springs are off, and I'm ready to cut the notch tomorrow, if I can knock out the honey-do list fast enough. Just thought I'd share the frustration

Has anyone else had a hell of a time trying to remove your rear springs like this? Every other bolt on my truck has pretty much slid right off, so I am utterly amazed that these were such a friggin bear.

I'm sure you guys up north deal with this all the time. My truck was made here in Atlanta and spend all but a couple years within a couple dozen miles of the plant it was manufactured in. It looks garage kept.

[clay68c10]

My u-bolts were like that. The truck was purchased locally and has a pretty clean frame. It took my 1/2" breaker bar with a 4ft pipe to get the nuts off even after repeated daily soakings with PB and Micro-Mist. Some things just don't like to cooperate.
That PB works great, but it IS stinky.

[usernamessuck]

There is a product called Aerokroil that works so much better than anything I have ever tried, PB included. It is kind of spendy and hard to find, but it is fantastic. www.paragon-products.com/product_p/aerokroil.htm

[clay68c10]

Kroil kicks ass, but it's so hard to find. I wish more retail places had it. Anyone know who regularly carries it?

[AlienYouth]

lol, I did the exact same thing last week, PB blaster and all! lol still waiting for the new retainers to come in :/

[meathead95]

ive seen kroil at co-op

[Longhorn Man]

When I took the bed off the longhorn, it was the oposite rant. I fully expected.. and WANTED the bolts to snap when i was removing the bed... it was built in Baltimore, sold in Paolie PA, I suspect lived in Maryland, ended up back in PA, and from the looks of it, it's never seen the inside of a garage in it's entire life. I was able to unbolt the entire bed with a 3/8 inch rachet.
Who woulda guessed?

[chipflyer]

Sounds like you had a good battle! PB is good stuff but get yourself a real torch (Oxy Acetylene) , a little heat will do amazing things, the mapp gas will not get stuff hot enough to do much good.

[shifty]

i saw a mini-oxy/acetylene kit at home Depot today and considered buying it. i've seen what one of those things can do...but don't want to deal with the tanks taking up space in the garage.

glad i'm not the only one who's had this happen.

i'ven ever seen that Kroil stuff before. will hafta keep an eye out. U-bolts are still on, might try to get them off tomorrow, hoping they're not nearly as bad.

[Longhorn Man]

the OX/AC torches... you can get small bottles that fit in a milk crate, and probably 2 milk crates tall for about 300 bucks, fit under the work bench.

[El Jay]

I learned this from an old automotive machinist, & to quote him, "I wish I had a nickel for every time I told somebody to do this."
Well, I, too, wish I had a nickel for every time I told somebody. I could be retired. It generally works real good. There are the exceptions, though.
Get everything ready in advance.
Heat the nut & bolt with a torch, propane works fine. After you got everything good & hot, hit the threads with some wax. Bee's wax is best, but paraffin will work just fine.
Anyhow, the wax will be "sucked" into the threads.
Immediately start to unloosen the nut/bolt.

If it don't work, you're out maybe a buck & 5 minutes of your time.

[tnblazerk5]

Originally Posted by shifty

i saw a mini-oxy/acetylene kit at home Depot today and considered buying it. i've seen what one of those things can do...but don't want to deal with the tanks taking up space in the garage.

glad i'm not the only one who's had this happen.

i'ven ever seen that Kroil stuff before. will hafta keep an eye out. U-bolts are still on, might try to get them off tomorrow, hoping they're not nearly as bad.

just cut the ubolts , they are not designed to be reused ( kinda like sum head bolts once ya use them 1 time and take them off pitch them in the scrap pile )

[dingo_dan_22]

I had the same problem...however my air compressor motor fried the capacitor so I used a 1/2" piece of conduit about 6' long as a breaker bar and just tightened the bolts til they snapped. I just cut the u-bolts. New ones were under 30 bucks.

[stllookn]

I always have my oxy/acet when I get to the suspension and bumper bolts. I always hit them with PB too...sometimes up to a week before so it can really soak in. Same procedure on old body mount and fender mount bolts.

[pcmcobra]

$12 nut breaker @ auto parts place has saved me several times. I've gone through a few of them, but the lifetime warranty get's me a new one every time.