Help: Rear lower shock mount BOLT stuck

The rear shock lower mount NUT was barely tight. However, the BOLT is stuck in the shock bushing.

 

The bolt moves freely in the hub carrier, but I can not punch it out of the shock. Hitting the non-head end of the bolt just pushes the bolt and the shock towards the center of the car.

 

The spec.B hub carrier aluminum and is getting torn up hammering the threaded bolt back and forth.

 

I tried jacking up the shock. Impact wrench doesn't do much because the bolt is stuck in the rubber bushing.

 

Suggestions?

It's really stuck. Now I can get it to turn in the shock bushing, but it still won't come out. The Bilsteins have a rubber bushing in the lower end of the shock, which the bolt goes through. The whole shock moves when I try to punch it out.

 

How did other people with spec.B's remove the rear shock??

You might have better luck if you remove the bolts for the top hat and drop the shock from the vehicle. Then you should be able to put it on a bench and spray with rust penetrant and give it a proper, supported, whack.

That's a good idea. I'll try it. It's not clear if there is enough room inward (toward the centerline of the car) for the bolt that is stuck in the strut bushing to clear the lower mounting hole.

What is happening is that the shock is actually applying downward pressure to the bolt. This is making it almost impossible just to slide the bolt out or to even just punch it out from the other side. The suspension is still under load even though the rear end is lifted off the ground and the wheel is off. You need to compress the shock to relieve the load.

 

What you need to do is jack of up the lower part of the shock so that the opening in the lower shock and opening in the knuckle line up. The lowest part of the shock actually slightly extends past the lowest part knuckle (the two bottoms dont line up with each other) will so you will need to jack it up just before the knuckle starts to lift up. This will relieve some pressure from the bolt and make it easier to take out.

 

Then you need to take your 19mm socket and just turn the bolt out. It will eventually come out, it just needs to be turned out sometimes. The clearance is very tight so the bolt doesn't always just slide out.

 

When you reinstall the shock, you will also need to jack up the shock so that the hole lines up at the lower shock and the knuckle.

 

Looking at pictures would be easier than trying to explain it.

+1, you need to relieve the pressure on the bolt and then it will come out fairly easily.

I tried jacking up the shock.

If you jack it up too much you actually put upward pressure on the bolt instead of downward pressure.

Thanks for all the detailed advice. I may have jacked the shock up too much.

 

It _looks_ like the bolt is binding such that the shock needs to be jacked up quite a bit, but I'll try just slightly raising the shock.

Here's what I did to get them out:

 

1) unbolt one of the sway brack brackets so that your control arm can move freely

 

2) once the nut is off the bolt, I ratched the bolt until ratcheting didn't do anything anymore.

 

3) Then I used the flat end of my wheel lug nut wrench, and wedged it in between the bolt and the shock to pry it out maybe 1cm, then in between the strut and the knuckle for another 1-2cm.

 

3) then I used some 15mm wrenches in place of the lug nut wrench to wedge the bolt out further, sticking the wrenches in between the bolt head and the strut. Repeat until you can't get leverage with just the lug nut wrench.

 

4) Then I used a wrench to pry out some more of the bolt, and when I didn't get enough leverage with 1 wrench, I stacked 2 of them together and stuck it in between the bolt and the strut for more leverage to pry it out.

 

5) Once I got to the point where I needed 3-4 wrenches stacked together to pry the bolt out to 1.5", it reached a point where wedging didn't do anything.

 

6) Lastly I ratcheted the bolt the rest of the way out.

I also tried jacking the strut up to relieve the force of the strut trying to compress, but that didn't help me during the uninstallation, but it did help during the re-installation.

From what i remember,first i used a 1/4 inch drive extension to push the bolt inward as far as possible. Then i put an air rachet on the bolt head. While pulling downward on the trailing arm assembly i backed the bolt out of the shock bushing.

How much do you jack up the shock to take pressure off the bolt? I tried zero to about 1 inch in ~1/8 inch increments tonight and it still binds.

 

Are the hub carriers on non-spec.B's aluminum or iron? The bolt threads really dig into the aluminum. I am really tired of fancy aluminum suspension bits (see 2000 Audi S4).

 

This is getting ridiculous. The bolt will not move through the shock bushing. It turns but will not move through. Turning it does not back it out.

 

My best idea yet: I used a length of 2x4 between the shock body and part of the frame/subframe (above a flat flap of plastic) so the shock can not move when I hammer and punch the bolt. No luck. Nothings moves.

Try turning it while also pushing it through at the same time (might need an extra set of hands). I just did mine this past weekend and there was a fine line between putting too much pressure with the jack on the shock and not enough. One way too far and it binds.

If you are concerned about damaging the hub I would say just remove the hub. You would not have to damage the hub further and the shock would now be removable.

 

You probably would save more time removing the entire hub assembly in the rear than struggling trying to get the shock of the rear. Once the shock is out just pound away on the shock.

 

I've learned in the many years of working on cars that not everything disassembles the way it should. There is always something that pops up that takes it MUCH longer than it's supposed to. :-(

Has any part of the bolt come out when you turn it?

 

For me, like I mentioned about, sometimes it would come out when I ratchet it, sometimes I had to pry it out, and then at the end had to ratchet the rest. It all depended on where the screw ended up digging into the bushings I think.