Need Help...(trying to replace CV boots broke a bolt)

[M3Galaxie]

I'm trying to replace my outer CV boots and yesterday I was trying to unbolt the lower control arm from the strut/shock dampener fork...well I had a break bar with a pipe on the end and it would budge for anything, and eventually the bold just sheared off....I'm don't know if I did this wrong or what. So today I got to the other side and first take the nut off. It came off easy put the breaker bar/pipe on the bolt and it won't budge...I'm trying to avoide breaking this one...so what should I do? Beat it out with a hammer? Crank on it until it breaks too? And even though I broke the other one I can't get it out of the hole.

[M3Galaxie]

Broke the other bolt now too....are they threaded in or should I try to beat the remains out???

[LX-incredible]

These should help:

The bolt is rust-welded to the inner shell of the bushing. As mentioned, try soaking it in pb blaster overnight, or using heat on the bolt and letting it cool. I tried everything but wound up cutting mine out. An air powered cut-off tool works the best for this. I wouldn't bother with a hack saw or anything else, that metal is quite hard.

If you are careful you can cut the inner bushing shell and bolt without damaging the arm or the fork. You will still need to drill or burn the rubber out of the bushing, remove the shell and press a new bushing in.

[M3Galaxie]

I need advice...I've got everything done as posted in the "How To" (axle installation), but I've got two broken strut/shock dampener fork bolts (the long bolts), and I can't get them out. My $24 repair is quickly grown...my CV boots have been torn for at least 2000miles...still have greese on them no clicking...should I just get whole new axles? Remanufactured or New, and from where? sorry to post whore....I'm just in a pickle....thanks^

[Vanilla Sky]

If you clean every bit of the old grease out and repack, your CV joints should be just fine.

I personally would either pull the whole LCA and press the whole bushing out, or burn them out and clean up the remains. From what I gather, the new bushings go in like butter on hot toast.

[LX-incredible]

You need to cut the bolt and inner bushing shell on both sides. Make the cut in-between the LCA and the strut fork. If you are careful, the fork and LCA will come out undamaged. All that remains is replacing the bushing. You will need new bolts from honda and new bushings. There is really no other way to go about it.

[M3Galaxie]

^awesome info...I'll start by calling a honda dealer for parts then go find my sawz-all.

[M3Galaxie]

well I was able to cut one side with a sawz-all, and coudn't get it to cut the other...got ahold of a cutting wheel and it made pretty quick work of the remaining side. I still can't get the bolt out of the end of the fork that had a nut on it or inside the A-arm...burning it out?? Do I just take a torch to it?

Also I noticed that the bolt was a ribbed bolt (longways)...did anyone else ever have to deal with this?

[LX-incredible]

A small pulley/gear puller should work to get the rest of the bolt out of the fork. For the bushing, you will need to drill or burn the rubber out, then cut a strip out of the inner shell, and knock the rest out with a big screwdriver and hammer.

[AccordEpicenter]

why do you guys do that shit? Youre better off taking apart the inner cv joint and getting it in/out that way. Its messy but it saves time and effort messing around with that bolt, especially on older cars and hardware

[M3Galaxie]

^ha You know that's a really good question...my answer, because I didn't know there was another way...I just found out today that it was possible to do the work and not take the strut fork to LCA bolt out, but the damage is done and I'm just trying to fix it now. You could just call it ignorance in not knowing how the axle is put together, but now I know. Someone should really put up a thread on the other way of doing it...I would be done by now, but instead I'm trying to...figure out how to get the LCA bushings out and find new bolts. I've search and still haven't found a someone with something up on the easier(as far as messing with rusty bolts) way of doing it.

edit: the way I'm talking about doing it you leave the upper ball joint connected...just undo the lower, and swing the break disc out of the way then take a hammer the the CV joint and hit it off the end of the axle...don't even have to take the axle out.

[LX-incredible]

why do you guys do that shit? Youre better off taking apart the inner cv joint and getting it in/out that way. Its messy but it saves time and effort messing around with that bolt, especially on older cars and hardware

I was replacing all the bushings in the front anyway. He had already broken the bolt...