After having a battle with a local independent garage over getting anti roll bar bushes and drop links done. Long story short i went to do them myself again. All was going well until the bolt for the O/S bracket decided to shear off when most of the way in. I have tried cutting a groove in the remains of the shank but no matter what i couldn't get it to budge even with loads of wd40 and patience (not much room either).

Judging by my track record the closest garage to me is about half a mile away so could get the car there but is he going to tell me its a sub frame off job to get to it properly? and with the ARB flopping about i don't want to drive the 8 miles to the main dealer?

WD40 is a Water Dispersant. You need a dismantling fluid such as PlusGas. If you can't find PlusGas, then use penetrating fluid.

Heat although the location really isn't going to help.

And WD40 is just a brand name now. They make a proper penetrating fluid.

Edited 15 June, 201313 yr by Frisco

Big hammer and a prybar and smash the captive nut off the subframe and then put a nut and bolt in its place

Thanks for the tricks ive tried the penetrating spray to no avail and withput access to a blow torch or welder set, im reluctant to put heat there due to the wishbone bushes being so close not to mentio the auxillary and cambelt. Gonna give a local inde a try. Not sure theres even enpough room for a 90 deg drill elbow

You can get a reverse tooled screw/bolt removers in most hardware stores. put it in a screw gun on reverse setting,

and it will bite into the stub and remove it.

a GOOD Quality penetrating fluid and enough time for it to work in is essential though.

I cant remember what the one we use at work for removing bolted joints that might not have been moved for 50 odd years,

but it works great.. Keylock or something...

As Volvomeg has said. The captive but has two small spot welds on it. Clout it off and nut and bolt it, job done.

I'd weld a nut onto it, if there was enough room, before I went smashing the captive nut off.

Edit: Ahhh, now I see the bit about no access to welding gear...

Well i took it to a garage and my worst fears were true they had to drop the subframe, drill it out and refit the bush. over four hours work but its resulted in an eye watering bill of £215! Thats main dealer rates. Would i be right in paying this?

Would have been cheaper to put a 2nd hand subframe on it