Monday I did a 4" front lift on my '86 F-250. Took about 12 hours but I wasted a few hours fighting stubborn rusted bolts and such.

Today the plan was to do the rear shackle lift (reverse shackle brackets from Sky). Got home from work and got started. I got the driver's side done. It was a bitch to get the rivets out of the frame but wasn't too bad. Took maybe 2 hours to do the drivers side.

Well a little while ago I called it quits on the passenger side. The bolt that goes through the shackle to attach it to the shackle bracket on the frame snapped when trying to loosen it. The inner side is rusted on solid. I cut the frame bracket for the shackle with a combination of angle grinder and sawzall and removed it. Cut off the nut and part of the remaining bolt stuck in the shackle.

I tried soaking in PB, applying heat, hitting it for long time with an air chisel to drive it through the shackle, drilling it out, and various other ridiculous things. I tried removing the shackle from teh spring but had no luck getting the other bolt out (shackle to spring). I figured maybe if I got it out I'd have better luck in a drill press or hydraulic press to press the broken bolt out of the shackle bushing.

Not sure how to proceed. I can probably get the shackle to spring bolt out and remove the shackle. That will take some time, and not sure I'll be any better off. I'm thinking tomorrow maybe I should get some good carbide drill bits and try to drill out the bolt with bits that won't dull in a few seconds.

Anyone else have any suggestions? I need my truck ASAP, because we have bad weather forecast and I'm gonna be riding my CB750 to work tomorrow, with a 60% chance of snow and high of 34*!