I hate it when there is a job I cannot do.. but I think I've been defeated on this one, gonna take it to a shop tomorrow (for only the second time since i've owned it)

was gonna finally swap in my 6'' springs, but, well.. whew, im exhausted. The shackle bolt, honest to god, came off pretty easily. Put a 5' breaker bar on the bolt end (not the nut), pushed, pulled and it finally twisted inside the bushing..

but the one on the other end.. I tried everything. Wasted a whole can of O2 with my new torch, got that bolt cherry red and .. nothing.. bought a new impact hammer which is amazingly strong, yet, still nothing. Bought a big hammer, nothing? sledgehammer? mushroomed the tip of the bolt

So I pulled out my saw.. this saw cuts through plate steel like it's nothing, but the sleeve inside the bushing (don't have a straight shot to the bolt) ate through the teeth of a brand new $5 blade almost right away. That sleeve must be made out of some pretty space aged stuff, as I can cut through grade 8 bolts with my saw.

So.. I give up. It's not possible, I'm gonna take it to a shop tomorrow. I've not even tried the other side yet. I can't get the stupid nut back on, so I have to drive it there with no nut on on the spring bolt, but I think it would drive forever without that bolt coming free.



I LOVE my Bronco, Ford uses some pretty tough components on their trucks, but it can really make them a pain to work on sometimes..

 

what if you jack up the frame to let pressure off of it?

 

Hear what the Stuntman said. X2 on that.

 

I used a 7 inch angle grinder with a new cutting disc and then still had to break the bolt loose from shakle hanger but it works everytime

 

Oh yeah it's going to smell like burnt rubber in your garage

 

I had the axle off of the spring when I tried.. still cant believe I couldn't even scratch that sleeve with my saw. The bad part is it isnt the shackle end, it's the end towards the front of the truck. If it were the shackle end I would have room to cut.

I bought a ball joint press, gonna try putting it on the bolt. I've seen a few items that came out pressed but wouldn't with a hammer. Been cold and rainy so it's gotta wait,

 

Well, I got them off. The ball joint press wasn't big enough.. I bought some cutting wheels for my grinder and it went through them like butter, too bad I didn't listen to everyone else who has done this job in the first place, would have saved me a lot of time.
Funny how that works, my saw can go through plate steel like it's nothing, better than a cutting wheel but it couldn't phase this bolt, yet the cutting wheel only took a matter of seconds.

Still wasn't easy, I couldn't reach with my blade all the way through the bolt towards the inside of the truck, had to burn the rubber in the bushing so I could keep twisting it to get all the way through.

the second side would have only taken me about 3 hours (experience, yay), but my shackle bolt got stuck and it was too late at night to use my grinder after I had got everything apart.
Then today, all this work was catching up with me, I hurt like an SOB.. everything took twice as long as it should have, and then everything that could go wrong DID go wrong.

Detached everything (u bolts, springs) then realized I hadn't jacked the truck high enough for the 6'' spring. My jack, obviously, is only tall enough to jack from the axle.. so that was fun. Then when I dropped it the second time after getting it higher and my jack stands tipped over and the Bronco almost fell on me. Lost some of my bolts, couldn't get the shackle turned down far enough to get the bolt in the right way, pulled the axle too far forward with the comalong, then crimped my brake line trying to pull it backwards. The UBolts I bought, one of them were spread a tad too far and I had to clamp it down to get it into the ubolt plate.. just one thing after another

I bought a new B&M? tranny pan I'm excited about putting on, new Ford Racing wires, brand new IAC, brand new exhaust and even bought some Deaver springs for the front, which I think I'm paying to have put on.. i'm excited about getting everything done though. These leaf springs were suppose to be a day job like they were on my F150 (and I drilled out the rivets on the F150). Funny how the parts are almost identical, the F150 was rustier and older, yet the Bronco was sooo much harder to do.

 

All the Bronco is, is a short wheelbase F150