stuck upper control arm bolt

pretty much says it, I have a 90xj, putting a lift under it, got the front axle stripped off in about 30 minutes, all except for the passenger frame side upper control arm bolt/nut. I've spent hours hacking at it, bought an air recip, took a torch to it, hack saw (watch out, its pretty easy to arc out the starter) I can't fit a 3" cutoff wheel, and even my dremel can't reach the nut because of the angles

Does anyone have any suggestions or tricks they used to get that one off, at this point the nut is destroyed so I can't get a wrench on it.

Haven't tried bolt cutters yet, but I don't know if they will get at the nut anyway, anyone dealt this that one before?

sawzall with a long flexible metal blade? :dunno:

managed to cut two bigger flats onto the rounded off nut, then the tab piece on the bolt inside the frame flopped over and it all started spinning, why a normal hex headed bolt isn't good enough I'll never know

from there I ended up dropping the front axle (might just need to disconnect the axle side of the upper control arm), pulled the starter, and with a brand new disc on a 3" cut off wheel and the guard taken off, I just barely managed to cut one side of the nut down to the flange, which relieved enough pressure for the rest of the nut to peel/screw off, had to be a fresh wheel and had to have the guard off, needless to say be careful because aside from sparks going everywhere, the wheel can catch and start bouncing all over the place

not exactly high brow advice, but in case someone runs across the same, go for the cut off wheel and don't look back.

With a 4.5" angle grinder I was able to cut most of the way through and then used a flat blade screwdriver in the cut as a chisel to break the rest off. After that I used a socket and a few extensions to turn the bolt inside the frame rail back and forth while pushing it out from the other end. Tape a piece of string to the side of any socket you use for this or you're probably going to lose at least one into the frame rail, though I got lucky and was able to retrieve mine with a carefully bent coathangar, a lot of angry words, and some time.

haha, i remember losing a socket down the frame rail. probably added an hour to my work time. i used a small telescoping magnet with a powerful rare earth magnet to fish it out. the bolt wasnt as lucky.

I couldn't fit an angle grinder in there, the bend on mine was too tall to fit between the frame and the oil pan.

Also a major pita that they put that bolt centered exactly on the edge of the bell housing, a couple inches either way and access would be so much better.

and that bolt that goes through the frame, cute that it has the big pad kind of riveted to it, but they mushed the points off of the bolt head to do it, so its almost like the head of the bolt is pre-rounded off for you, moronic design there.

metalman said:

I couldn't fit an angle grinder in there, the bend on mine was too tall to fit between the frame and the oil pan.

Also a major pita that they put that bolt centered exactly on the edge of the bell housing, a couple inches either way and access would be so much better.

and that bolt that goes through the frame, cute that it has the big pad kind of riveted to it, but they mushed the points off of the bolt head to do it, so its almost like the head of the bolt is pre-rounded off for you, moronic design there.

Click to expand...

:smsoap::gonnablow:flamemad::nono: seriously

Those two bolts took me longer to deal with than the rest of the suspension when I replaced my front axle.

having just done the suspension on my truck, there's no way I'm doing another lift kit. and my truck was a AZ with very little rust.

good luck, brother!!

.......

I decided to put the bolts in backwards when I reassemble it, that way most of the corrosion is on the bolt head instead of the nut and threads, and I'm jumping up to a 7/16 grade 8 bolt so it should have less slop inside heim joint thats going in, although I'll have to drill the frame holes out just a hair, that should be fun but I measured and the bit should reach through from the outside just barely, if not I can just use a rat file to reach, whats a few more hours of my life

From now on, start with the correct socket. Whether that be a 6 side or what have you. I promise, I've relearned that lesson many a times!

Also, try a cheap grinder. Either a grinding wheel or a cutting one should work fine. I've had surprsingly good luck with a chisel and a hammer. I whack the hell out of it just once or twice to "shock" the tension and break it loose.

Good luck!

mud1059 said:

From now on, start with the correct socket.....

Click to expand...

righty tighty lefty loosey too.... right???????

Being serious though, yeah, this isn't my first rodeo, after the first one I preheated with a torch as well to break the loctite, and seated the wrench with a hammer. No corrosion, just below grade hardware, when I pulled the drivers side nut off, it was twisted into a six sided spiral, there is no way I'm strong enough to do that with 1 arm with a 12 inch cheater pipe slipped over the wrench while laying on a wheeled creeper. from some of the other comments, I'm not the only one to have that problem, which is a design/manufacturing flaw apparently. Now at least I know to skip the wrench and go strait for the grinder next time.

Flag nuts/ bolts are just stupid. That's what we call them since they look like regular hardware, with a stamped steel flag hanging off to one side. Jeep saw fit to put them on the Commander exhaust, there're no threads in the downpipe flange or manifold, just straight through bolt holes with flag nuts on top of the manifold ears. Takes a magnet to get the driver's side ones on. 3 years later, torch is going to be a required tool just to get the trans out.

They're so convenient on the assembly line though-