see posts 4 and 20, "same" advice
In fact you may not need to remove the head, drift the bolt out with nut still on for as far as you can then remove nut and drift/hammer the bolt all the way out.

macafee2

You will not be able to drift the bolt out, so in light of that here is the definitive answer to the problem ;)

Chop off the bolt, remove the upper arm, then belt the middle out of the bush with a mash hammer, it will not resist I promise

Of course you will have bought your new rose joint bush, if not.... phew you won't need to break the bank, as the identical part is fitted to E46 BMW rear suspension, so treat yourself.........LINK

Now comes the interesting part, without further dismantling of the rear suspension, buy yourself one of these.......LINK, I'm sure I don't need to elaborate on how this is used, or do I?

I've got a Vectra B rose joint tool, for which I machined up a deeper mandrel to accommodate the longer 75 bush, however I would have probably bought the tool in the link if it had been available at the time.

So, no need to start dismantling any further, if you wanted to be creative, after bopping the middle out of the bush, you could hacksaw through the outer part left in the trailing arm, then simply drift it out, remove the boot from the new bush, then after cleaning out the hole in the trailing arm, pull it into place using threaded bar, and a suitable size socket, or even the old bush housing with a big washer.

It's up to you, with the tool I use, the whole operation will take you less than ten minutes, I'm sure improvisation may take longer, but the end result is a whole lot cheaper and more satisfying than paying for an unnecessary part.

Brian :D
____________

Hi Brian.
Hope you & your are keep well & safe, even better to see you are posting fantastic information once again than you. :bowdown:

Great info here thanks a lot ! I'll speak with my MGR expert about this approach see what he says (I'm not really equipped for this job to do it at home)

He'll still need to get the upper arm to subframe bolts out without the causing the captive nuts to start spinning, which they're likely to do if the bolts are very rusty.

The RH upper arm captive nut on mine started to spin because I didn't soak the protruding tip of the bolt with penetrating oil before I started. I should have lowered the subframe first (to gain access).

Here are the upper arm captive nuts - they're not visible from any other angle. If they start to spin the bolts won't come out and you'll have to take the subframe off.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...a47fa2ecca.jpg

The lower arm captive nuts can be seen from underneath - access is easy.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...a49e3a49ab.jpg

Lower arm pair again - closer (split) view

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...a4d4f6b200.jpg

More access through here (arrows)

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...a500d78695.jpg

For reference, here's a full view of top side (not visible from under the car).

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...df7618730d.jpg

And this is the bottom side.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...df717e3f66.jpg

Here's the tip of the RH upper arm bolt protruding from the captive nut (on a new subframe). De-rusting the tip and bombarding it with penetrating oil is the key.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...dfcf245104.jpg

....... :wot:

I found that you can spray plus gas through the plastic straw attachment, right onto the protruding bolt threads via the gap shown in the pic to the left and underneath the arrow, over the weld. Moving the can and straw in and out as you spray creates a wide arc of lubricant/freeing liquid.

True, but you can't get a wire brush* onto the thread. It really needs both - i.e. wire brushing, then repeated bombardment with PlusGas.

* Mini wire brush with steel bristles.

I've done fifteen pairs of arms now and never needed to resort to subframe removal.

The trick is tighten first, before attempting to slacken, which breaks the rust hold without stressing the cage securing the captive nut, and as soon as the bolt starts moving, switch immediately to 3/8" drive sockets, which allows much greater "feel" and if the bolt starts to tighten, reverse the ratchet and tighten the bolt once more.

Lots of plusgas through the hole in the bottom of the box section of the subframe, and I tend to use a mini maglite, an incandescent one not an LED so you can spray the penetrant directly onto the end of the bolt.

If the bolt is attempted to be wound straight out, it will almost certainly end badly, working this bolt patiently will pay off in as much as the resultant work of subframe removal can be avoided completely ;)

Brian :D

Brian - once the new bolt is back in*, what do you think of spraying the protruding thread with Dynax S50?

(*After it's torqued up)