brystheguy

I was replacing all my u-joints in the rear and the left side u-straps were not coming off so I cut the U part off and now I'm really in trouble. I cant get the rest of the bolt out as they are rusted in. I have already tried heat and I jimmy-rigged a bag of PB Blaster so that they were totally submerged all night. Still no luck. Do I have to take the yoke off or is there a better solution? Thanks.

(Hope the picture works. First time.)

brystheguy

Anyone? Buehler, buehler??

first-stingray

If you can get a good angle try using a punch or something and tap the inside with a hammer. Maybe this will break up some of the rust.

repeat the soak, heat and hammer until it loosens up for you. I feel for you, these simple things are a pain sometimes...

80TexasC3

happened to me with one of the drive shaft u-joints... fortunately I could get my impact wrench in there with an extension and reducer and let it do the "banging" after I soaked it in Blaster. From the picture, it doesn't look like this is an option.

Would go for a visegrip to really clamp down on the bolt (if stripped head) then slide a pole over the end of the handle to increase leverage. Be careful not to twist the head off with this much leverage as you will have to remove the yoke and use a bolt extractor then.

Van Steel

Since you have u-bolts, your side yokes do not have threads in the holes. Just the u-bolt has threads. I would try to heat it up again(On the outside) and try and punch it through. If you heat up the u-bolt itself inside your just making the metal soft and allowing it to mushroom, if you will, and swell up in the hole even more. Heat the outside and punch it out.

Red_Shift

Yes the side yokes are not threaded and heating up the side yoke while leaving the bolt realitively cool should help greatly.

Jim-K

Drill it out.

R. Bruno

I know you said you already tried the Blaster, but I would keep spraying it over the course of 2 or 3 days. I had a similar problem with a shock mount. After a few days of pounding and PB Blaster, one day it all but fell out. You have to give that stuff time to work.

brystheguy

Well, after four hours total, I finally got them out. I bought a nice new pair of vice-grips but they just slipped. I drilled holes almost all the way through, heated, soaked, pulled, twisted, and whacked several times. Oh, I swore a lot too. Still, it didn't work. I finally had to get out my Dremel with a carbide bit and jam it in the drilled hole and press down until it ate its way through the bolt and started to hit the yoke. I knew when it hit the yoke because it threw out a bunch of rust dust. I had to do this on the top and bottom and then I was finally able to whack them out the end. Thanks for all of the great suggestions. That's why I love reading this forum. The MA chambered exhaust is going on next!

lowvette

Dremels are awesome when you're stuck! Glad it worked for ya.