Rear shock bolt removal trouble (lower) NA6

mr_rotary · Postby **mr_rotary** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 7:15 pm

Myself and a mate have successfully fitted new shocks and springs to the front however we have come a little stuck with the rear.

We have cracked open the lower bolt to the rear shock absorber however it now just seems to be spinning. It seems to have moved approx. 3mm (by feel) and we have tried every trick in the book to try and remove it. And to make matters worse, it's happened on both sides on the rear :twisted:

We are also unable to tighten the bolt up, it just spins both ways. With a finger through the inspection hole, you can feel the bolt spinning.

Any ideas on how to remove it?

We have also come stuck in removing the actual bolt to the lower arm connecting the disc hub. Nut is off however there is no way we can budge the bolt. Any ideas on removing ths one also?

CT · Postby CT » Fri Apr 06, 2007 8:30 pm

For a start, you only need to remove the top bolt in the rear hub - not the long one at the bottom. If it doesn't move, chances are it's either bent (really bad) or seized so just do it back up and undo the top one. As for the shock bolt, I've never had one strip the captive nut before so you might be up for a full lower arm removal so you can at least get it out on a bench to look at. Sounds odd though, how tight was the bolt when you first undid it? Maybe a previous gorilla cracked them with a rattle gun.....doubtful though. :?:

zoomzoom · Postby **zoomzoom** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 11:23 pm

Have you tried taking the pressure off the lower one and levering it out? It could just e jammed in under pressure? I didn't take either of the bolts out from the arm to the hub, i just undid both the lower shock bolt and the strut top in the boot and stood on the hub to make the suspension droop to grab the shock out.

Good luck, Tim

mr_rotary · Postby **mr_rotary** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 12:20 am

'zoomzoom' : We put the jack under the control arm to try and take the pressure off the bolt (it actually spins quite easily). We also tried to tack on a bit of steel and lever it out. We even went to the extreme and also tried to drill a hole at the rear of the control arm (in line with the bolt, suprised Mazda didn't put one in in the first place) and used a punch and hammer from the other end to punch it out. Nothing seems to work and it has happened on both sides which is unusual! It dosn't actually feel that the captive nut has broken away though?

'CT ' : The suspension dosn't look like it's been touched in 185,000km. I used a 1/2\" breaker bar to break the bolt and it seemed just the usual effort as per other bolts. I then used a ratchet to continue to undo it. The only person that's used a rattle gun is the gorilla from Mazda.

I tried to budge the lower control arm bolt just to see if we could get it out to replace the lower control arm if we had to as a last resort, however that bolt is an issue. As we are replacing the shock and spring, we only require to top that bolts to the shock. However we need to get that bolt out to do it.....

zoomzoom · Postby **zoomzoom** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 12:25 am

Ooh I dodn't like the sound of that. By the sounds of it the thread must be gooone, that gorilla must have had the high torque gun wound right up when he did it up.

Once again, good luck

mr_rotary · Postby **mr_rotary** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 12:36 pm

I posted the same question on the big forum and after a closer inspection this morning it seems the nut holding the bolt has broken the welds and is spinning. Apparantly is quite a common problem for early NA's. Solution seems to be to use a dremel tool (or other cutting device) and enlarge the opening under the shock large enough to get a spanner in there to crack it open. The nut should be re-useable.

CT · Postby CT » Sat Apr 07, 2007 10:00 pm

What a PITA so the bolt had seized stronger than the weld had held- how'd you go today?

BTW, I recently had to remove a bent lower bolt and it took many hours of patience with a dremel and heavy duty cutting disks. I then had to burn the bushes out with a blow torch to finally remove them.

mr_rotary · Postby **mr_rotary** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 8:29 pm

5hrs later - mission accomplished

I had to cut/enlarge a 10mm x 30mm slice in the hole directly under the shock absorber. Luckily I had a Dremel tool which made this task nice and easy. Problem was I had only one genuine cutting disc and a heap of cheapo's. Invest in the proper cutting discs to do this job! 4 discs should do you nicely. I went through at least 15 cheapo's as they where paper thin and broke too easy.

The bolt is 17mm and square in shape. The US or later models may be welded however mine was not. All that was holding the bolt weas a 'U' shaped piece of metal which had to be bent out of the way so I was able to fit in the spanner. Not having a hoist makes this quite a difficult job.