Seemingly dangerous job...

[Tommy McIntosh]

Hi everyone, so I guess I'm a diy home mechanic and theres never really been a car problem I physically couldn't fix unless it required equipment I didn't have, I've had 6 vehicles in my life and worked on all of em, right now I have an 02 ford explorer ( my second explorer) and Im about to replace the front struts which is seemingly easy by when I learned about the typical procedure on removing the bottom bolt Im not entirely sure how I'm gonna do this. It seems that if the bolt and the bushing are seized together then I have to burn the bushing off in order to get the bolt out. This is something new to me and I've used torches before to heat up seized bolts but not to actually burn something off. I can't afford a shop to do it but it has to be done. I was thinking of heating up the outter part of the strut to see if the bushing melts away but I don't know if it'll work, any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[odinjunior]

I soaked mine with PB Blaster and had no problems.

 

[03Explo20]

Yes, PB Blaster the night before and you should be good to go!

 

[Tommy McIntosh]

Ok cool, I'll definitely try this first, thanks guys! Thanks for the video!

 

[ROBinGa]

You are going to know right away if you have the problem of the bottom bolt seizing to the lower strut bushing sleeve. It will feel like it's springing back instead of turning to come out because the bolt fuses to the strut sleeve surrounded by rubber bushing and you feel that rubber binding if this is the case. Definitely soak both side bolts in PB Blaster as much in advance as you can and then be prepared in case you have to cut that stuck bolt out of there. Make sure you can obtain another lower bolt in case you need it is what I am saying. My passenger side came out smooth as silk and driver side bolt had to be cut with sawzall on either side of strut bushing then punched out. Nothing was ever going to separate those two metals.
I don't think you can melt or burn off the rubber bushing that will have any affect on what's going on if you have the binding problem. That will just create a smelly mess. It's the inner sleeve of metal that fuses to the lower strut mounting bolt. The problem is getting the bolt out of that inner sleeve to then be able to remove strut assembly.
Hope yours comes out nice and easy. The rest of the job is just as the video shows and isn't bad at all

 

[lincolnshibuya]

really depends on your luck, some of us here have problems with the driver side bolt and ending up with everything we could think of to get that bolt out.

went to the junkyard with a breaker bar to get that replacement bolt and was glad that there's no problem in taking it out and it's free (well $2 entrance fee).. dealership will charge you $40 for that bolt.

 

[Tommy McIntosh]

Yeah the reason I thought this would be dangerous is because even the dealership told me the easiest way was to burn the bolt bushing out. It's an easy job other than that, I'm waiting on my new shocks to come in the mail and I went to tinker with the bolts ahead of time to see what I'm gonna be dealing with and the bottom bolt on the passenger side is acting like it didn't want to turn so I didn't force it till I get some pb blaster. The top 3 were tricky to get to because of the a/c lines run right over top of em. I think I need to get an extension for my jack too so I can get it up higher, it's a 3 ton but it sits kinda low.

 

[extra-medium]

make use of a decent pry bar. I used a pipe on the end of a breaker bar when I put my rancho's in.

 

[Joe in NY]

Do impact guns not even touch this bolt ?

 

[Mbrooks420]

A quality impact gun should outdo a breaker bar in every case, except where there are clearance issues.

 

[IPcamper]

An impact gun will get the blot loose from the nut, but if the strut's steel sleeve is rusted to the bolt, the impact gun won't break it free of the sleeve. A long breaker bar might do the job, but when I did my front struts, the sleeve just broke free of the rubber bushing in the base of the strut. The bolt will not come out if that happens. Like many others, I had to cut the bolt free.

 

[ROBinGa]

Yep, what IPCamper said. The nut comes off no problem but the bolt won't come out of the strut sleeve if you are unlucky enough for this to happen to yours. If yours isn't fused then the bolt will come out of the lower strut easy peasy just like in the video above. But if it is fused you should know right away when the bolt head won't turn as you try to loosen it.

 

[Tommy McIntosh]

Yeah I think thats pretty much what it's gonna do, a challenge is a challenge, I got breaker bars, impact sockets, pb blaster, 4 lbs hammer, a swazall, a blowtorch and pry bars and pullers, if all this can't get it out somehow than this will make me retire from auto repair

 

[Tommy McIntosh]

Yeah I think thats pretty much what it's gonna do, a challenge is a challenge, I got breaker bars, impact sockets, pb blaster, 4 lbs hammer, a swazall, a blowtorch and pry bars and pullers, if all this can't get it out somehow than this will make me retire from auto repair

 

[lincolnshibuya]

this is how it will look like

as what mentioned the impact gun will just rotate the bolt and break the rubber bushing. The bolt will not come out because the sleeve (inner bushing) of the shock is fused to the bolt, so grind the head of the bolt and cut the exposed portion of the sleeve (inner bushing) another wonderful engineering from Ford.

hopefully yours will not be that bad because space is tight in there, a torch could reach the CV and tie rod boots ending up with more replacement work...

 

[Tommy McIntosh]

Wow, yeah you said it, it's like they don't intend for you to ever replace it, guess I'm gonna have to find me a grinder, my old one burned up a year ago and I never bothered to replace it because I thought I'd never need it, guess I didn't figure on working on a ford again lol, I love that truck tho but I think I'm gonna be inventing some new curse words with this job, thanks for all your help, if it doesn't come out peacefully then I'm gonna take your advice and grind and sawzall it out.

 

[ROBinGa]

Tommy have you been able to get to your driver side bolt yet?

 

[Tommy McIntosh]

Im still waiting on my struts in the mail, I should have them within a week, hopefully.

 

[drdoom]

That's probably enough time to get that bolt out