Leaf Spring eye bolt removal

[jeff4891]

gwaii's method is the easiest and quickest way to do it.

 

[bobbywalter]

gwaii's method has worked and also, more often failed me, the whole stud started turning...actually the rubber turned in its casing, or i end up twisting the threads off..

i just use a cut off wheel for the bolts on the hanger/shackle, and rebush. usually requires a 5 or 6 inch cutoff on a 4.5 grinder and due diligence, its very dangerous and easy to mess the wheels up and grenade them.

but quite fast.

i would not buy that many sawzall blade if i could avoid it with the grinder.

when trying to reuse the old bushing its a real circus show most times if the sleeve and bolt shaft are "growed" together.

 

[pontiacfieroguy]

crc spray? That stuff ought to work good for shrinking a shaft diameter that needs a bearing pressed on it.


and on the seventh day god said let there be light, but there was none. so i turned on the switch and there was light and it was good.

So.....who made the light switch......Levitron, or God?

i made the switch

 

[Fairlaniac]

gwaii's method has worked and also, more often failed me, the whole stud started turning...actually the rubber turned in its casing, or i end up twisting the threads off..

i just use a cut off wheel for the bolts on the hanger/shackle, and rebush. usually requires a 5 or 6 inch cutoff on a 4.5 grinder and due diligence, its very dangerous and easy to mess the wheels up and grenade them.

but quite fast.

i would not buy that many sawzall blade if i could avoid it with the grinder.

when trying to reuse the old bushing its a real circus show most times if the sleeve and bolt shaft are "growed" together.

I bought some 7" cut-off wheels, that was the hot ticket. Sliced through those bolts and sleeves in minutes. I now have all new hangers for just over $100 (with cut-off wheels). Plus 5 hours of my time. Thanks to all for your tips.

 

[modelageek]

Drill the rubber out with a drill bit. 3 minutes done, end of discission

 

[rrbrian222]

I agree with modelageek that drilling out the rubber works pretty well, though I broke several drill bits doing it (fortunately I had a bunch of free-after-rebate sets from menards, so I really didn't care).

I think the one issue that is causing the problems for most everyone is the front driver side spring eye where the emergency brake cable bracket covers the end of bushing, making it impossible to use the drill method with the bolt still installed. I'm going to sawzall the bolt shaft between the hanger and spring (with some fresh Bosch bi-metal blades). Hopefully then I can drill out the bushing same as the others. I'm not sure what other are saying about using a cut-off disc for this....maybe a very thin one would work, but I'd probably mess up the spring or hanger in the process.

One thing for sure, for such a theoretically simple project, this has been a MAJOR pain in the ass. I also just shelled out another $36 for energy suspension leaf spring bushings (amazon.com w/ free shipping) cause there's no way I'm going to get those metal sleeve ones in there without taking them to a shop for pressing (and more $$$). Anything special I should know about using he poly bushings?