rear suspension

[Wayne Cox]

At 02:56 PM 6/14/2002 -0500, ianshannon97 wrote:
>How do you remove the rear bolts of the rear suspension without having to heat
>up the bolts. I want to do my ES rear bushings this weekend but these bolts

Dude!  Check the archives for the last week.  I just got done with the same
hellish job, and there were plenty of good suggestions posted when I asked
the same.  We had a tow truck driver bend a rear control arm while
strapping the wife's NX down on the truck and I had to replace it.

Basically, if you're a rust belt resident, you're in for a bitch of a
job.  I'll try to summarize.  The big bolts will be welded into the inner
metal sleeve of the busing, and into the wheel knuckle.  The inboard bolts
that secure the control arm to the underbody and have the toe adjustment
aren't that bad.  Neither was the trailing arm / radius rod /
whatchamacallit.  The bolt heads are all 22mm;  if you're short on tools in
that size 7/8" is close enough.

You might be able to get the big bolt out with everything still on the
car.  But I ended up removing the brake stuff, unbolting from the strut and
taking out the whole assy with arms to clamp in a vise.  You can beat on it
a lot more effectively that way.

First try removing the nut, and hammering on the end of the
bolt.  Actually, if you have a replacement nut, leave the old one on but
loose and hammer on that;  will prevent the bolt end from mushrooming
over.  When that fails to work (it probably will) try torching out the
bushing on that end.  Warning:  the melted rubber is a big nasty
mess.  Even after cooling it will be a sticky mess that fouls you and your
tools.  With the metal bushing sleeve now exposed, you can try grabbing it
with a pipe wrench and concentrating some force on it.  Since the force
will just be trying to shear that one joint, it may work.

What ultimately got mine apart:  took knuckle and arm assy to a machine
shop.  They torched off the bolt stub and bushing sleeve on the threaded
end.  Then cut the center section of the bolt with an air cut-off
tool.  With the bolt cut, any force applied is concentrated on just one
side.  The knuckle was heated with a torch, and an impact wrench cracked
loose the half of the bolt with the head.  Next he heated the other "ear"
on the knuckle, and used a hammer & punch to take out what was left of the
threaded end.  He was able to keep the heat concentrated on the "ears" that
the bolt goes through, so I don't think the rest got hot enough to damage
the wheel bearing.

Put it all back together with a shitload of anti-seize grease.

>Yes I do have every rear bolt to replace the old ones. Man are they expensive!

Really?  I only ordered the long bolt;  list was like $10, but it was
$7-something with the typical mail order discount (got mine from Scottsdale
Nissan.)