Removing rear shackle bolts?

[busmania]

I’m trying to put new shackles on my 40 axle. It appears the bolts are pressed in? I have tried removing with an 8” clamp and some sockets but it’s not budging! How do I remove these?

[fordor41]

jack it up to take pressure off the shackle. may have to soak them with penetrating oil.I assume you have the nuts and plate off one side.

[busmania]

The car is apart and my rear end is somewhat disassembled but completely out of the car. The shackles and spring have been completely removed.

Here’s a photo.2DB27BC7-48C4-41B8-B117-B19E2D627496.jpg

[tubman]

It's not really clear, but I think he's referring to removing the shackle bushings from the spring eyes. If you don't have the special tool for that, it will take some ingenuity and a lot of work.

There are numerous threads on this that can be found by using the "Search" function.

[cas3]

I heat the stud with a torch until it wiggles and you have burned out all the rubber, then pull out the stud with a vise grips. Next, with a torch cut a slot in the remaining shell and pull it out. Some folks cut the shell with a hacksaw blade, but if you have cutting torch skills, its easy and fast. As soon as its red hot pull the trigger and move fast. The shell is thin, you wont cut the spring or the axle perch as they are not pre-heated enough to cut

[FlatheadTed]

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You can use a spark plug socket with a long bolt through it once the shackle bolts removed and pull it out ,But Cas 3 has a original and good suggestion if you have a gas torch , Ted

[busmania]

After 25 years of working on cars this finally gave me enough reason to buy a proper oxy/acetylene torch set up. I did as cas said but after sawing for about 30 minutes I decided to just try heating it hot and the hitting it out. A 13mm deep socket and 4
pound sledge did the trick after I had the eye glowing red. Thanks y’all.

Now onto getting the bolts out of the front axle. Ugh. Never ending issues with stuck bolts!

[jimTN]

You can also drive the stud part thru, first with a hammer then once it enters the bushing, a punch. With it out, if you cannot get the bushing to drive out with a socket, hacksaw thru the inside of the bushing making one cut then it should drive out.

[cas3]

You should only have a tiny spot of the outer shell glowing red, and only for a few seconds. Not the eye of the spring ! Thats not good.

[Flathead Fever]

We used to remove bearing races that we could not get to the back side to drive them out by just heating a red spot on the race or even running a MIG weld around them, when they cooled they shrank and fell out. A little harder to do on that thin sleeve with no room to get in there. Heat is always a last resort. K.R. Wilkson made a tool for pressing those bushings in and out, they do not show up very often. I wish I had one. If you're going back original, you'll want to press in the bushings with the studs angled like the shackle will be at ride height. I don't like the fit of some of the slip in plastic type bushings, they fit a little loose. Modern cars don't use them, and it could be because they transmit vibrations through the plastic. When you start restoring cars or building period correct hot rods, you'll start looking for little details like that.

I found some stuff online. A page from the KRW catalog. I've seen a couple of those BV-121 installers for sale, but they were missing the bushings. I found a Chevy bushing removal tool that shows how they pressed them out.

Something else I'm going to try. I have two of these heavy-duty U-joint/ball joint presses out in the garage. One is brand new in the box, in my grandpa's stuff 30-years ago. If I could make the right size bushings for each end it would be more than strong enough to push those shackles bushings out.

[busmania]

Originally Posted by cas3

You should only have a tiny spot of the outer shell glowing red, and only for a few seconds. Not the eye of the spring ! Thats not good.

Sorry, newb wording. The spring was already out (it was broken actually) and I was just trying to get the bolt and bolt housing out that is in the cast iron axle tube arm thingy. I only heated the cast iron where the bolt goes through after the spring/eye was removed.

Now if anyone has advice on getting the bolt out of the wishbone (where it goes through front axle) out that would be great. I removed the sway bar so now the one side of the bolt (where the shock attaches) just spins when I try to loosen the nut on the opposite side. I can’t for the life of me keep it from spinning so the nut will come off.

[Flathead Fever]

Originally Posted by busmania

Sorry, newb wording. The spring was already out (it was broken actually) and I was just trying to get the bolt and bolt housing out that is in the cast iron axle tube arm thingy. I only heated the cast iron where the bolt goes through after the spring/eye was removed.

Now if anyone has advice on getting the bolt out of the wishbone (where it goes through front axle) out that would be great. I removed the sway bar so now the one side of the bolt (where the shock attaches) just spins when I try to loosen the nut on the opposite side. I can’t for the life of me keep it from spinning so the nut will come off.

The rear tube thingy is called a rear radius rod.

As far the wishbone bolt it depends on if you're trying to save the bolt or not. I'm not a fan of heating the axle to get it to break loose. When you put it back together use antiseize on it.

[cas3]

Good for you, you bought a torch, you will never regret that buy. Do you know how to set the flame for a good cut? basically, the flame should not change when you pull the trigger. study on youtube for more of that. for your perch bolts on the wish bone, I would first put a big pipe wrench or crecent wrench, or now that you are a big shot with a torch, cut the proper sized slot in a piece of heavy metal to hold it. Then, heat one side of the nut to dull red, and hit it with an impact gun. The idea is to heat it quick so the nut expands before the heat gets all the way to the bolt, and it expands too and you gained nothing. If you heat too long, the whole thing is hot, and may or may not move, but will most likely ruin the threads if that hot. The next method is a good man with a torch can cut one side of the nut off, then the other side off, and again, the nut will cut and not the threaded bolt because its not preheated enough to cut...usually ! This is a good thing for many situations, but the perch nuts have a tapered shoulder (like a lug nut ) so its hard to do, and a last resort.