D35 Teardown - spring perch bolt removal

[Curious Hound]

The bolt have lock tight from the factory. Heat is your friend, and maybe good for the washer that's rust-welded to the arm.

I forgot about their loctite. Absolutely het it up to soften that stuff.

 

[pjtoledo]

Good detective work Shran. I agree that's probably what I'm dealing with. I cannot understand why someone would weld these either!?!?! Maybe they're not welded but just incredibly tight. The one side I'm working on (RH) won't budge at all when I pound it with a 5lb sledge. How tight do these things fit onto the bolt? I'm inclined to think they ARE NOT welded because I don't see any bead or grinding marks....
This weekend I will take a grinder to it and see it I cant coax it off.

I would try a lighter hammer, and swing it a lot faster.
be sure to protect the threads & hex.
wedge a cold chisel under it.
try drilling straight down next to the hex to relieve tension.
as stated, heat the washer, propane for a few minutes should work.

this is the type of situation where you have to get creative.

good excuse to buy a hand held band saw

 

[Josh B]

Creative is what they did on the drilling rigs with dry ice, amongst other things one I liked was dropping a piece into a 16 cylinder EMD sleeve, waiting a couple minutes for the "clink", and then swapping in a new one.
Don't be careless with that stuff though because it'll do as much damage to your fingers as heat ever could,
just wondering if it could do as much good on your stuff there in some way

 

[pjtoledo]

dry ice, oh -oh, you're gonna get the greenies after us for that one.

 

[sgtsandman]

dry ice, oh -oh, you're gonna get the greenies after us for that one.

Carbon Dioxide is fine. It’s what the plants breath. It’s carbon monoxide and methane they freak out about.

 

[Maui-sprint]

Thanks for the input guys. That washer ended up being exactly what Shran found at broncograveyard. I continued my teardown on both sides and was able to get pretty far. This included removal of both swing arm pivot bushings. I need to pick up a deep 1-1/8" socket for my impact wrench to remove the bolt holding radius arm to swing arm. Double-box wrenches wont budge em! Also cannot separate the carrier from driver side until I separate the radius and swing arm. So I'm at a stand still right now. I tried to source a socket from multiple stores over here but nothing. So will have to order it online. Pics of passenger side swing arm below.

 

[Shran]

Heat it up with a torch... propane should be enough but you'll have to let it sit and cook for a while to get it hot enough.

FYI, these are often REALLY tight or the rust seizes them in place... I have a 3/4 Milwaukee M18 impact that is super bad ass but occasionally it has been defeated by these particular bolts.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Heat it up with a torch... propane should be enough but you'll have to let it sit and cook for a while to get it hot enough.

FYI, these are often REALLY tight or the rust seizes them in place... I have a 3/4 Milwaukee M18 impact that is super bad ass but occasionally it has been defeated by these particular bolts.

Yes, heat is your friend. I did take off those bolts without heat, but I was using a 5' cheater bar on my 3/4" breaker bar.

 

[Curious Hound]

Good job! Heat will soften the loc-tite they used and also loosen any rust.

By the way, when looking at parts drawings, etc., the parts you are calling swing arms are normally called the axle beams in TIB/TTB assemblies.

 

[Maui-sprint]

Any tips on replacing the spindle bearings? The TRS Tech Library calls out a special slide hammer/seal removal tool 1175-AC for removal and another tool T83T-3123-A for installation of the bearings. I'm not about to invest $$$ in these tools. Hoping others have DIY tricks to get this done.

 

[Maui-sprint]

Also I went ahead and ordered up an extra deep 1-1/8 impact socket which should arrive in time for this weekend wrenching. Will hit those spring perch bolts up with heat and the new socket I'm sure will do the job. Been thinking of these AXLE BEAMS all week! haha

 

[Shran]

Big flat demolition screwdriver or a chisel... I would just chop the old bearing out with that. Caveman style. Use a socket similarly sized to the bearing to push the new bearing in... hammer it in or press it in with a vise or shop press.

 

[Curious Hound]

I don't remember needing a special tool for spindle bearings. They shouldn't be too hard to deal with.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Any tips on replacing the spindle bearings? The TRS Tech Library calls out a special slide hammer/seal removal tool 1175-AC for removal and another tool T83T-3123-A for installation of the bearings. I'm not about to invest $$$ in these tools. Hoping others have DIY tricks to get this done.

Hammer and chisel. Socket for installation. And patience.

That all said, I bought a slide hammer awhile back and now that I’ve used it for a few things, I wish I would have bought it sooner.

 

[sgtsandman]

On thing that helps with bearing installation is to freeze the bearings. Leave them in the kitchen freezer over night at a minimum and pull them out one at a time as you install them.

If tapered bearings, just the race is fine. If unit bearings, the whole thing. Wrapped in something to keep the Mrs. from freaking out is recommended.

It won’t make them slip right in but is does reduce the friction and make it easier. Once they warm up, they will have the tight fit they need to have.