How do I avoid this when removing front leaf spring bolt?

I have seen some people have stripped the welded nut because the leaf bolt was rusted to the center of the bushing causing it not to come out.





My plan so this does not happen to me, is to heat area 1 with mapp gas, then loosen the bolt a little hopefully it will come out and not stripp, since my 1999 in 12 years old, I am figuring for the worst that the bolt will be rusted to the inside of the bushing.

Next I plan on using a saws all to cut the bolt at the 2 location in the picture, then remove the leaf and heat off the head of the bolt.

Does this sould like a good plan, if not I may price what a mechanic will cost to do it, because if anything goes wrong it looks like things can get ugly real fast.

i heated mine up. just have a squrit bottle with you so you don't burn the bushings.

The next time, I am going to cut the eye on the leaf in two places. If I have to, grind the bushing sleeve until I can pry it off. Heat the bolt, splash a little water on it and repeat, eventually soak it in penetrating oil front and back and take it out of there.
Last time I had way to many nervous moments, this time I'm peeling it like an onion.
I'm figuring with my air grinder and my angle grinder, I should be able to make short work of all the obstructions and get to the heart of the problem quicker.
Cutting number one in your diagram isn't going to leave you with much to grab and turn the bolt with.
I do have a welder handy if things do get really obnoxious. Sometimes no matter what you do it turns to chit.
I have to do my 96 sometime this summer.

Heat is your friend. Just make sure you have a fire extinguisher near you or some other thing you can use to put out a fire with.

My 94's came out perfectly clean. No rust there just everywhere else.

I had that happen on mine... I just let it happen and got it out to the point that the bolt was no longer in the frame and them I used a cut off wheel...

some people have used a puller at that point or pressed it out

On almost all the leaf springs I have un-installed, the bolt is rust fused to the metal bushing inside the leaf spring eye.

If you are not going to save or re-use the leaf spring, simply cut the spring eye away from the bushing with a 4" angle grinder and cutting blade. Then, dismember the bushing. With the bushing and spring out of the way you can remove the bolt, or apply heat/penetrating oil as needed.

If you want to keep/re-use the leaf spring, cut the head off the bolt and bend the spring pocket open. The spring can usually be pried from the bolt and removed. The remains of the bolt will come out with some heat and a Vise Grips.

You can spend hours messing around or take about 10 minutes and cut it all into little pieces.

I guess I got lucky. On both my 89's the bolt came out with no issues. And both my 89's originally came from the rust belt....... But I did soak them every day for about a week with PB Blaster before I removed them so that helped.

Thanks for the help everyone,

My plan is to heat them up and try to get them out, if they get stuck I'll just use a angle grinder and cut the leaf spring eye open and remove the bushing if I have to to get to the bolt.

you can drill a tiny little hole on the frame side to get direct penetrating oil on the welded nut via the "straw" on the oil bottle

here is what I did with mine. I had both of mine really stuck in the frame and after a god attempt with a 1/2" breaker bar (I gave it all that I felt it could deal with) I brought out the Oxy-acetylene torch. heat the frame where you know the weld nut is located to cherry red; when the bushing catches fire just keep blowing it out and disregard the damage you do to it. Once you get the bolt to break loose thread it out until the bushing's inside collar starts to flex the outer bracket. At that point I "chewed" away as much of the bushing as I could to expose as much of that collar as I could. Once I had enough room for the vice-grips, I clamped those puppies on and started on the bolt again. Luckily the corrosion inside the sleeve provides enough traction for the bolt to thread out. I did this on both sides without damaging anything but the bolt and old leaf pack. Before I put the new leads on I wire brushed the area and shot it with some paint and then reinstalled the new packs with new hardware. Went back together perfectly.

Oh btw, penetrating oil did jack s**t for me.