Wishbone bolts

[fb2]

Evening all,

I posted a while ago mentioning I was planning to clean and paint my chassis. Sadly whilst doing it I found a small hole in the off side outrigger but after much fretting about the cost I've had both outriggers replaced. Hurrah!

Now I've set about making the rest look as nice as my outriggers. I'm hoping to remove the wishbones to give them a good clean, check over and paint but am having difficulties getting the upper mounting bolts off - it would seem they're a little rusty. I've tried pretty much everything I can think of and am now thinking about splitting the nuts. Any other suggestions before I do this? If I do, should the bolts then push out?

Plan to replace them all with Steve Heath's kit when I'm done.

As ever, thanks for any help

Duncan

[Ballistic Banana]

Have you tried some Heat on them? remember not to heat anything else though in that area

I have had the heat work on one bolt that wouldnt shift.

BB

[Barreti]

Duncan YHM

[Pupp]

I'd soak everything with repeated liberal doses of a penetrating lube, and then get mediaeval with them... you're not going to re-use them and they have to come out. It doesn't have to be pretty provided nothing else get lunched... which might happen with heat in the confines you're working in unless you have really good kit and can use it. They will come out. Good luck

[fb2]

Thanks chaps,

Have tried getting medieval but to no avail. If I get the nut off one end should I then be able to hammer the bolt out or does it screw through the wishbone?

[PurpleV8]

Bolts will just slide out with a bit of help!

[spend]

They can pretty hard to drive/screw out... Be careful you don't damage the thread so it makes it even harder. Wire brushing can help, Heat and leverage should do the rest - it will spin like a top with 1m of breaker bar on it

Dave

[GreenV8S]

Take the nut off first. They're pretty substantial and if you manage to round those off you're doing something badly wrong! The bolt will just drift out, but protect the end of the bolt so that you don't marmalize the threads. Either use a wooden drift, or a punch so that you are only hitting the center of the bolt, or refit an ordinary nut (not stiffnut) so that it protrudes beyond the end of the bolt.

[Fat Griff]

Have you tried a 6 sided socket with a very long power bar? Or a powerfull impact gun? Could need just a good shock!

[TheGriffalo]

Most should drift out, but watch the lower bolt that's closest to the chassis. There isn't anywhere to apply leverage if you mash that one up.

Penetrating oil will help, as will tapping the flat of the nuts with a metallic drift to shock the rust in the threads. Rotate the bolt 60 degrees at a time and repeat.

[mrcosmos]

Hi,i did front end rebuild last year[wishbones,bushes,ball joints,trackrod ends]and found the easist way was to try and get a small gap between the bolt head and the chassis[wishbone]then fit an old spanner in the gap and keep hitting it to draw the bolt out. Also big thumbs up to Steve Heaths bolt kit,100% recommend,makes build up a lot easier.Regards,Dave.

[TheGriffalo]

Anyone got a list of the bolt sizes?

[HarveyB]

Duncan- how did you get on with this?

[red griff roger]

Griffalo - when I replaced mine I got a nice pdf from Powerflex showing layout of different bushes. Can't find the file now (but it is theirs anyway). I did drop a note to Powerflex suggesting it would be good for Griff pages. e-mail them. I am not sure sizes are on the pdf, but if I recall rightly (please correct me if I am wrong on this someone), there are only two lengths anyway - 31/4" x 5/8 AF (4 sets each side front, 5 sets each side rear) and one longer each side 51/4" rear lower front. Shocks are bigger - 3/4 AF. (And note, rear upper front shock is the same bolt as wishbone). Steve Heath does a kit.

[TheGriffalo]

Thanks for that... I resent paying for nuts and bolts, when I was in engineering they were free stock

[red griff roger]

Griffalo - Ummm, sorry. Should have done what I have just done now - gone and measured them! They are 3" and 5". The 1/4" includes the head, which I guess is wrong? I know a 1/4" may not be much, but it matters to some. There a few places where there is no clearance (such as rear, upper, rear; and front, lower, front) and a longer bolt won't work.

[spend]

I thought they were 7/16"-9/16" UNF, have you quoted a spanner size (bolts & nuts can be had with completely non-std hex sizes - in fact it is quite useful to have the nut & bolt in different sizes)

Dave

Edited by spend on Wednesday 16th January 10:59

[TheGriffalo]

Right, my take on what's what, I've measured the shock absorber bolts but not all of the wishbones as yet. I'm taking the diameter of the bolts on what's been previously said.

Front suspension
Upper shock absorber bolt
1 off 9/16 X 3"
Lower shock absorber bolt
1 off 9/16" X 2 3/4"
Upper wishbone
2 off 7/16 X 3"
Lower wishbone
1 off 7/16 X 3"
1 off 7/16 X 5"

Upper ball joint
2 off 7/16 X 3"

Lower ball joint
3 off M8 X 70 (Metric amongst all this imperial ?)


Rear suspension
Upper shock absorber bolt
1 off 9/16 X 4 1/2"
Lower shock absorber bolt
1 off 9/16 X 3 1/2"
Upper wishbone
1 off 7/16 X 3" (other side picked up by upper suspension bolt)
Lower wishbone
1 off 7/16 X 3"
1 off 7/16 X 5"
Hub carrier
3 off 7/16 X 3"

So I reckon a complete bolt kit would consist of:
Bolts
6 off M8 X 70
2 off 9/16 X 2 3/4"
2 off 9/16 X 3"
2 off 9/16 X 3 1/2"
2 off 9/16 X 4 1/2"
20 off 7/16 X 3"
4 off 7/16 X 5"

Nuts
6 off M8 Nylock
8 off 9/16" Nylock nuts
24 off 7/16" Nylock nuts.


Anyone care to check my musings?

[red griff roger]

Bag of washers is handy too. There were a couple of points where I had to shim up with thicker washers to prevent the bolt fouling the body (rear/top/rear comes to mind). I also was supplied a new set of bolts with the upper balljoints. The washers were quite thin, and when torqued up the washer got marmalised. And a big tube of Copperslip.

I see from General Gassing you are in the midst of a project! One thing I struggled with was sliding the new polybushes between the chassis mounts. They are tight. I gave the chassis mount faces a good clean with a wire brush and enery. Also, a small tap with a hammer to open the lips of the mounts up (not a wallop!) lets them slide in nicely.

[TheGriffalo]

I'll take your tips on board

Dunno why I bothered with all that though, my specialist local nut and bolt place doesn't stock UNF bolts any more. Think sourcing the bolts will have to be a Google job. At the moment I think I'll just clean the threads up with my wire wheel and use new Nylock nuts which I've managed to source locally.