Seized pinchbolt - an alternative solution

[chris75]

Myself and several others have recently been having a lot of bother trying to remove the front strut to hub pinchbolts following broken springs . In my own case I had to remove the strut and hub as a complete assembly to replace the spring and put it back the same way, as I could not move the bolt and I needed the car on the road. I got a spare strut / hub assembly from a breakers and over the week end I put that on the car so that I could take the original into my garage for round 2 .I could then take as long as I needed to get the seized bolt out
I had planned to drill the bolt out as trying penetrating oil by the bucketful, heat , freeze- shock stuff and various size stilsons had failed to even twitch it . I only had hand -held drills however and a couple of practices did not fill me with hope . The bolt is grade 10.9 , very hard , and titanium drill bits were looking like taking me several weeks , if I could keep it centred
In the end , it proved relatively easy to remove using a hacksaw and a big 4lb hammer. I offer the following method as a procedure where all else has failed , but of course as usual you try it at your own risk . I hope the pictures might be of use if anyone else needs to do this .



This shows the strut/hub secured to a workmate to hold it down ready for surgery.



First stage is to hacksaw the bolt in half to release the tension in it. There is room to fit a hacksaw blade in the slot of the carrier collar , alongside the fin on the strut . Although the bolt is very hard this was quite easy, but as you are nearly through the bolt will snap due to the tension ! Use a full size saw and a good blade (mine was 18 tpi ) and cut on the threaded side of the fin rather than the shank side to ensure you can unscrew it later.



Once the bolt is cut the threaded end can be unscrewed using a baby Stilson wrench on the couple of threads which project beyond the collar. This was surprisingly easy as the threaded half of the bolt was not at all corroded. The internal thread in the collar is left undamaged ready for a new bolt .



This is the violent bit . The unthreaded shank end of the bolt now has to be drifted out of the collar. I moved the assembly to the garage floor and supported the collar of the hub on an old 14lb hammer head .This made a good anvil and has a big hole in the middle for the bolt head to be driven into.
Use whatever you have, a hardwood block with a hole in would work, but be sure you are fully supporting the casting as you are going to hit it with everything you have . I then used an old coach bolt as a drift and hit it repeatedly with a 4 lb lump hammer . The bolt moved minutely at first , but eventually shot free.



And here is the old bolt in two pieces , with the new bolt ready to go in !
You will need to clean up the corrosion in the bolt hole with a round file , and I recommend plastering the new bolt with grease before fitting because you don't want to do this again !
This is a good time to see about removing the seized ABS sensor you probably have , but that is another story..........

[Zeb]

Excellent! And the last line is just so true...

I was lucky..my pinch bolts came out with the aid of a 4lb lump hammer...

[Dragrad]

Superb bit of work there

Now copied to the how to forum

http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/foru...ad.php?t=84261

[Kedaha]

I had a seized+snapped pinch bolt, eventually using a vice grips threaded the threaded part all the way through the end. Horrendously painful but got the job done!

[Jules]

Well done Chris
We are seeing more and more bolts rusting up as the Cars age.
Usually it's the wet weather mileage rather than actual age which causes underside corrosion.

I've always Waxoyled bolts on our own Cars for any future dismantling.

Before anyone resorts to hacksaws or drill bits though.
Buy a good quality industrial penetrating oil.

I swear by Rustbuster by Rolec Industries .......10 times more effective than WD etc
Anyone remember Plusgas? well Rustbuster is even more effective than that.

[FLYER]

Originally Posted by Jules

Well done Chris
We are seeing more and more bolts rusting up as the Cars age.
Usually it's the wet weather mileage rather than actual age which causes underside corrosion.

I've always Waxoyled bolts on our own Cars for any future dismantling.

Before anyone resorts to hacksaws or drill bits though.
Buy a good quality industrial penetrating oil.

I swear by Rustbuster by Rolec Industries .......10 times more effective than WD etc
Anyone remember Plusgas? well Rustbuster is even more effective than that.

I have a tin of plusgas in my garage , do i take it it's now a collecters item

[Jules]

Plusgas still good stuff but WD is a waste of time for these sorts of bolt seizures.

[T-Cut]

Originally Posted by Jules

I swear by Rustbuster by Rolec Industries

Couldn't find Rolec, but is this the stuff?

RustBuster Dismantling Fluid: http://www.oilybits.com/la-co-rust-b.../prod_295.html

TC

[James_Death]

Great how too and was what i was looking at resorting to before mine eventually came out a note with mine is that only about 2 threads protruded beyond mine and mine was 8.8 grade, the only 10 grade i had found were the black ones not suitable for exterior usage.

[chris75]

James, there were only two threads protruding on my bolt as well but that was enough for a small set of Stilsons with good teeth to get a bite on That end of the bolt was not corroded and came out easy.
Interesting that your bolt was 8.8 grade . I had a few of them in my box of bits but had ordered the actual animal from Rimmers .
Re the penetrating oil, whilst I had tried extensively soaking both ends of the bolt and the gap in the middle with it and even leaving it overnight , when I got the bolt out it was bone dry so nothing had penetrated the corrosion . ( I still have some old type plus gas ! )