HELP! The main control arm bolt is fighting me to the death!

[Mr.Pessimist]

So my '93 NA Sedan is up on jacks in the garage. I'm replacing the rear outer control arms with a pair that have swaybar mounts (I guess NA's were not equipped with a rear sway bar) but I cant get the main through bolt to budge. I've tried everything and finally got out the old impact wrench and layed into the bolt for about 10min. The bolt still will not budge. I've got the bolt greased up and everything....still wont move. I know many of you probebly have experience with this, any suggestions??
FYI-This is the bolt that attaches through the main cross beam on the frame.

I was now thinking about removing the bolt that attaches to the hub first, would that work better?

Please help, I really want this done by Monday!!

Thanks guys, (and gals now I guess )

[LaureltheQueen]

thats about when I get frustrated enough to take it to les schwab.


I'm actually having trouble picturing it, I'd have to have the suspension right in front of me i think.

[legacy92ej22t]

Did you spray it with penatrating oil, like pb blast? Maybe try heating it up.

[evolutionmovement]

I have the opposite problem where mine occassionally comes loose... My fwd N/A has front and rear antiroll bars. This may sound stupid, but did you hold the other end of the bolt? There's a cap on the end by the gas tank (probably to offer a little pentration protection for the tank in case of a rear ender). That's on the fwd, though, as the 4wd's have one bolt for each rear arm.

Steve

[stant093]

I'm actually having trouble picturing it, I'd have to have the suspension right in front of me i think.

i second that, a pic might make me pick my brain a little less...

[Mr.Pessimist]

Well, the problem is that I dont have a digital camera and the second problem is, that even if I did, I have no clue how to upload it (or host it) so you all can see it on the thread.

My Legacy is FWD and its a sedan, so I'm guessing that they put them on wagons and not sedans (unless its a turbo or maybe AWD?). Well, regardless...I dont have one and thats why I'm in this situation

oh, and just to clearify some more, on FWDs the back controls arms are bolted together by a single bolt that runs all the way through the cross beam. AWDs have two bolts, one for each control arm on either side of the car (a total of 4 bolts).

I sprayed it with silicon lubricant and let it sit and it still wouldnt move. I thought about heating it up but the bolt has rubber gromets on each side. I dont really want to burn those.

Thanks for the ideas, if y'all have anymore please let me know.

Thanks for trying to help me...I'm just gonna keep crankin' on it in the morning.

[mTk]

I have a 92 fwd na (not for much longer bwahaha ) sedan I didn't have a rear swaybar, i put on the mrt control arms and all mounts not too long ago.

I had to use my breaker bar and a jack. I put it on the bolt, the nut side i think) and jacked up the end fn the breaker bar until it broke loose.

MK

p.s. PB Blaster is the shit

[LaureltheQueen]

If I take a photo, and post it, will you show me what we're looking at?

[Mr.Pessimist]

So today I oiled the bolt up real good with 'liquid wrech' layed into it with the impact wrench again and nothing happend. So then I tried un-bolting the control arms from the hub (19mm bolt head/nut) and it worked easy, the bolt came right off first try. Yet, the other one remained un-shaken. I then decided that I needed to get a hold of a box wrench since nothing else will fit between the nut and the gas tank. I figured that I would put a breaker bar on the wrench and loosen it that way. I drove to the auto supply and got a 17mm box wrench since the bolt head was 17mm. When I got back to put the wrench on the stubborn nut guess what? the nut is a 19mm!!! not a 17mm like the bolt head!

I decide to cut my losses and try to crank on it from the bolt head side again like I've been doing with the impact wrench. This time I decided to use a combo of the wrench and the floor jack. I positioned the wrench on the floor jack platform and start pumpin up the jack. Believe it or not, the car started to lift up off the jack stands! and the bolt didnt move one bit. So I found myself lifting my car with the box wrench that was connecting the floor jack to the bolt head. This might be crude physics here but if my legacy, weighing in at 2700lbs, is forcing down by gravity and I'm crankin' upward ~1000lbs with the floor jack with a force multiplier in the middle (wrech) that is some serious for being exerted to torque that bolt. Still no movement?! and to top it all off a storm rolled in and the power went out!! I then hurried to put the car back together while I still had a little daylight and got it done just before dark.

I walked back to the house with my Legacy still having no rear sway bar...angry and discouraged

Tomorrow I'm getting a new timing belt put in and if I'm having this much trouble with simple suspension parts, I dont even want to attempt that myself (I did consider it though ).

Hope you like my short story...

[Mr.Pessimist]

If you want a good pic of what I'm looking at go to Cipher's thread:

"Sigh, I broke a HD control arm/lateral link. No I didnt hit"

Its under the 'Suspension' category.

That big main bolt closest to the middle left of the pic is the one I'm battling. Its attached to the frame of the car.

[HomeSlice]

been there done that. i had the same exact problem but mine was on a lift so i got beter leverage. soaked it in pb then i took a wrench with a 4ft peice of exhaust pipe and still could not budge it. i start moving my car on the lift! impact gun no dice.... so i took a torch to it came right out. took me awhile....i feel your pain on the 92-94 fwd not coming with a sway bar.
the 90-91 came with a sway bar but the older style setup. good luck. keep us posted.

[Mr.Pessimist]

Success!!!! I decided today that I was gonna get this sway bar on if it cost me my life in the process. I lifted my Legacy up and went to work. I lubed that baby up with "liquid wrench" and started torquin'. I again went with a previous suggestion of using the floor jack for power and set the combo wrench in place. I layed into it with the floor jack and the wrench and it finally broke free (it literally sounded like it broke). Those bolts were on soooo tight that it took a couple of times with the jack and everytime it sounded like something was snapping.

After that madness I realized, as I began to pull the main bolt out, that its a little tight underneath the car to try and pull a 10 inch single bolt out. I instantly found that I couldnt make it past the spare tire housing. So I just decided to bang on it with a hammer a bit and make a dent for clearance. It worked fine, but then on the other main bolt I couldnt make it past the muffler. I ended up having to pull the rubber mounts around the muffler off and lowering the whole end of the exhaust system in order to pull the other bolt out. 10 inch bolts in that area of the car are a pain!!

So I finally got the control arms in and eventually the sway bar, but it was a long painful process.

Total time today: 6 hours

Results: I took it for a test run after install and I was very satisfied. It handles like a new car. Its gonna take some getting used to because I'm not used to the back end being so responsive with oversteer. Its even more fun to drive now

Pnuematic(sp) tools rock, and in some cases good old fashioned wrenches rock even more.

Thanks for all the input guys, and gals. You've all been a great help.

[mTk]

that sounds exactly like my experience getting em out. I thought for sure they had snapped when they initially came loose.

I also hammered on the spare tire housing to get a bolt out, and had to lower the exhaust.

Feels good once you get it done, doesn't it?

MK

[Mr.Pessimist]

Yes, it feels really good having it done now. I tell ya, there is nothing that beats the feeling of walking into the house after being under the car all day with grease and dirt all over me knowing that I accomplished what I set out to do

Oh, and just for fun...

tonight as I was driving over to my gf's apartment and this riced out 2nd gen integra rolled up next to me. He didnt make it obvious that he was next to me (probebly because he knew he'd get smoked) and at the green he took off. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww (the sound of those retarded coffee cans) he crossed three lanes and took a left turn. As I passed him turning, I reved my engine (with the beautiful sound of Dynomax) and got the usual look saying:

Woah! what is that?!

That's Subaru pride...

[LaureltheQueen]

damn.... Glad I have a stock swaybar.