<VV> Front strut rod bushings

[BBRT]

There is a nut splitter you could try. I don't know if they make one big 
enough, though. The thing I found, is that the rear one usually will turn, 
but the front is frozen solid. IF, you can get the rear one off, then you 
can remove the bolts on lower control arm and remove arm. Use a lot of 
penetrant; PB Blaster or Kroil or some folks use a homemade variety 
(archives-I don't remember ingredients). What I did, was, found a guy with a 
big vise. I put hte arm in vertically. First I hit both sides of nut with 
hammers at more or less  the same time to try and break the nut free. Then, 
using a big wrench and a four foot! length of pipe, slowly worked the 
remaining nut back and forth until I could really work it and eventually got 
it off. The threads are fine so it is a bear AND the die for those threads 
is a special order item. But, once you get the arm off, you can use the blue 
wrench on it and heat the front nut up and then work it.

Alternatively, leave the front one where it is, install new bushings and 
adjust. The rear adjustment will probably be right on, since nothing has 
changed.

Chuck S
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jon Woolf" <jon at jonwoolf.com>


> OK, so I've searched the archives...
>
>
> I need to replace the strut rod bushings on my EM front end.   The nuts
> are TIGHT!!   We had her up on a hoist today, hosed it with penetrant,
> put a bigass wrench with cheater bar on it... and saw the actual rod
> start to twist....   we quit.
>
>
> Now, I'm going to have to do this on the garage floor, no clearance for
> big stuff there.   They are way close to the gas tank, so I'm a bit
> leery about putting a torch on them.   If I cut the nuts with my Dremel,
> I'll probably wreck the threads.   Should I just cut the rods and go
> hunt for a used pair?