How does one remove stuck shackel bolts wo destroying every thing? the lower arms i can get out after about 3 hrs of cutting and such but the tops are in that channel with the leaf spring in the way of getting a cutter up in there easily. one top im slowly unscrewing but the front left is a utter disaster the lower bushing had rusted and expaned on to the bolt so im suspecting the upper to be in the same situation as it rotates but is not coming off in the least. the rearward im making some progress on but would hope theres some tool to make it a bit easier.

 

when i changed springs i cut them off with a torch and put the new springs in with all new hardware. it was not worth bothering with the seized bolts.

 

did you come in from the ends or did you have to cut the bolt in half from the center of the box opening?

 

i cut the bolts off between the spring and the shackle and let the spring drop. then replaced the shackles and springs with all new hardware.

if your shackles are still in good shape, a sawzall will work too.

 

I've now done the bushings on all four corners of the truck and there is no sugar coating it, removing the old bushings is a terrible job on a 20 plus year old truck.


What sort of tools do you have at your disposal? Air compressor, impact gun, air hammer, grinder?


If I recall correctly I used the combination of a zip disc and impact gun to remove the nut from the bolt. Once the nut (or bolt head whatever is easier) was removed I then proceeded to beat the living daylights out of the bolt with a combination of air hammer and 4lb sledge with a large punch. The top bushings in the front shackles are by far the most difficult to get at, all the rest of the bushings can be cut inside the mount between the spring and the spring eye lowered for easier access. It's a long painful process but it can be done. Once you have the shackles out of the truck you can work on removing the rubber with them in a vice.

 

The left shackel rotted away i got the eye out of the spring up front due to that. took a rachet tiedown to pull the fused bushing/bolt 1/4 shackel out of the rubber after i drilled the heck out of it.

The upper part is where i have the worst of it I dont have a nice set of jacks etc and have to work on the gravel drive way to make it happen. I have a smaller compresser that does run the impact wrench but that was worthless to try and remove the bolts. all nuts are now off either cut or wrenched off. top drivers side bolt has the eye of the shackel on it still. It wont be easy and possibly even impossible for me to properly drop that spring much further.

I have a oxy torch set mig and stick. impact wrench is it for air and a large sledge which hasn't been budging any thing. I have a battery saw I have been using to cut the original outside bushing so that it compresses enough to come out of the spring. due to the length of it no way to work it inbetween the frame and the upper bushing eye. 7" angle grinder which wont easily fit up in to that area either.

about the only thing i can see working is using the torch to cut 2 sections in to the upper bushing eye so that i can try to dig/melt out the rubber to get to the bolt.
then cut the middle of the bolt off leaving a bit on either side so it doesnt weld its self to the frame. cut the bolt end short and hope it pops out then possibly cut the head off the bolt so the last peace comes off.

I ended up having to use a 4' cheater bar to take the nuts off the bolts. only 1 bolt was able to turn inside the bushing the rest took a beating from the impact and cheater bar and still held fast enough to remove the nut from the bolt.