dbusch22

got a 94 k-member here. i'm removing everything b/c i'm doing a complete teardown and rebuild (long story) anyway, i ordered a complete front end kit from Performance Suspension Technology and so i'm tearing down the entire front.

If it wasn't bad enough that all the ball joints and tie rod ends and such were a pain in the a** to remove, I can't seem to get 2 of the last bolts from the lower control arms off. the nuts are removed, but the bolts will NOT come out. I mean, it's me against this stupid k-member..

I've got it sitting on the floor in the garage and it's all taken apart except those last two bolts.. pretty soon, i'm just going to cut the bastard apart and call it a day!! i've been pounding the cr*p out of the bolts with a hammer, trying to pry them up with an air hammer, i mean, they just won't come out. they will slide around in the slotted hole, but won't release. I'm so pissed i'm about ready to just order a tubular one and some new control arms... cept that it's a little out of my budget.

anyone gots any ideas??? is there some trick to this?? maybe i could just throw the k-member in the back of my blazer and take it to a local shop and let them deal with it. I also will need to have ALL bushings, ball joints, and whatnot press-fit off, and then the new ones pressed on anyway(which i can't do myself b/c i don't have the tools)
any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Z28barnett

FYI, my old post.

I am in the process of replacing most of my suspension with 1LE parts.

I was doing this in part due to the fact that two alignment shops could not align my car or tell me what was wrong.

My car is a 1995 Z286spd with 90 k miles. I assumed that the bushings were gone and that was causing my problem.

I have been checking every part as I took them off, and until yesterday I had not found a problem.

The bushings are in O.K. condition and tierods/balljoints were ok.

Upper shock nuts where rusted no flats or anything left. Just muddy red rust and flakes. Bottom of the shock tower on the inner fender was begining to rust also and will have to be repainted.

The surprise was the rear front lower control arm bolt. It was frozen beyond anything I had ever seen. After about four hours of pounding with sledge hammers, heating with a Mapp torch, generous aplications of PB Blaster, breaking off the locking tang, I finally got it out.

I am explaining this because the frozen bolt affects the adjustment of the lower control arm and will prevent proper alignment.

The nut came off easily so an aligment shop would think they had loosened the bolt and would attempt to adjust the arm.

The sneaky problem is that you have is the top of the bolt is still clamped. The head of the bolt has not loosened because it is trapped by the rust swaging the shaft of the bolt to the metal center of the bushing.

This means that the arm will not slide and half of your adjustment is defeated. The shop will not know why and in my case they will assume that they have reached the limit of the adjustment. The shop even said that their camber/ caster tool was bending. After removing the bolt I see why.

There is an easy way to check for this problem. If you can't get enough adjustment to do an alignment. Have the shop try to remove the front and rear bolts, one at a time. If they come out easily you are fine and have some other problem. Also if they can be easily tapped part way up and down, you are good. If not, consider your options because this was a very hard job. I had the springs out, so if you are checking with the springs in that may make the test impossible.

The front lower control arm rear bolt was rusted bady over it entire length where it fit into the center of the bushing. It showed no visable sign of this problem. The front bolts looked brand new and could easily be removed.

I think the heat and PB Blaster helped the most. Pounding didn't seem to help much until the bolt started moving. You may want to work on this over a few days and give the pentrating oil more time to work.

I have learned this the hard way and still have two more bolts to do.

I have now completed both sides and the second side had the same problem. Only took about 2 hours of heat and pounding to remove the front passenger side lower control arm rear bolt. The front bolt on both sides was plated and showed no corrosion. I wonder if GM had a batch of bad bolts?

I hope this post will save the owners of camaros time and money on suspension and alignment work.

Front LCA Bolts/Nuts

P/N: 10229835 front (2), 10164163 rear (2), 3537773 nuts (4).
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Dave K

Where did you apply heat? I've got one bolt (the rear bolt next to the exhaust) that's stuck hard. I've penetrating oiled up the beast and left it for the night. I actually went so far as to put the nut back on and turn it until it was flush with the bolt... then jack the entire front end by that stupid bolt, and it didn't budge.

My next step was to heat up the metal bracket the top of the bolt is siezed to.

Retarded dealer service... I bought all new upper and lower control arms because the dealer claimed that lowering the car has made it impossible to get an alignment... when obviously it was the stupid stuck bolt. Not that I mind upgrading

dbusch22

well this is an old post, and i got mine figured out. anyway, i just got real pissed after it sat in the driveway for a week without any success. So one day i grabbed the biggest hammer i had and beat on the bolt like a read-headed step child. it started budging. then when i got some clearance between the bolt head and the k-member i used an air hammer to remove it the rest of the way. The bolts were rusted to crap. probably end up having to replace them with some nice new EXPENSIVE bolts from GM. that's what i did.

RE AND CHERYL

This is a common problem. Both mine were frozen and required a torch to cut the bolts out. What ever you do to get them out, use plenty of antiseize when you put them back together.

Dave K

I hit the bolt with penetrating oil once a day for the last 4 or 5 days and today when I went back to it I was able to pound it out in 5 minutes without heat. The penetrating oil had worked itself completely through the rusted section... that stuff works wonders given time.

1995droptopz

I had the same problem with mine. broke the tab off on the LH side and held with a breaker bar while twisting the control arm until the rust broke. RH side could not remove the tab because of the y-pipe. Used a can of break-away, and used an air hammer on the bottom of the bolt until it came through. Ordered new bolts and nuts from the dealer.

Anyone try to replace the upper control arm bushings with the Energy Polyurethane ones? They do not supply new outer sleeves, and the rubber is impossible to drive out without damaging the sleeves. Energy suggests heat on the sleeve while pushing the rubber out, but no luck so far. Any ideas? Thanks