PITA bolts and nuts!

[sammyhale30]

Ok I have got to replace wheel bearings on the front. So I followed advice from one of the topics on here somewhere.  'Simply'(SIMPLY) remove both hubs and take to a garage to have the bearings pushed out and new ones put in.  3 days later and I'm still trying to remove b****** passenger side hub(ironically the one with the knackered wheel bearing).  Drivers side hub came off and drive shaft popped out so easily it was a joy to do.  Just unbolted the 3 captive nuts/bolts under the balljoint and the whole hub just slid out nicely and using a puller the driveshaft just popped out of the hub.  

 

Passenger side however.  One captive bolt came out, the other 2 are stuck...nut is rusted onto the bolt and they are just spinning now! Completely sawn off one of the nuts and the damn thing is still spinning with the bolt..  There is like a V shaped plate and about 2-3mm of the nut sits inside this and it is hanging onto the bolt for dear life.  So I now have two stuck bolts, so I thought I know I`ll remove the wishbone bolts and remove the entire thing so that I can gain better access to the captive nuts.  Bought a 450nm mains powered Clarke impact hammer for the job, who the f*** has tightened up these bolts on the wishbone???!! The hulk...  18 socket split in two with a bar(reason for getting impact wrench) and my new 18 laser impact socket just started to round the corners on the bolt head!!  The t*** wishbone bolt will not budge at all. 

 

It's like some maniac has been on the car and torque'd everything upto 1000nm or something crazy!!

 

Feeling really p***** off is an understatement! :(

 

A friend of mine keeps telling me to grind the captive nuts that are in that V shaped plate at the end of the wishbone, but I've never used a grinder and the plate is only like 2mm thick and I don't fancy knackering up my wishbone..

 

Is a grinder my only way out??

 

 

 

 

 

[elerepair]

Either heat them or cut them.

I have no clue which part exactly are you talking about, but I would go with heating them with a torch, or cutting them, if you dont have a torch. 

[Bodge]

Have you tried removing the BJ from the knuckle (one nut)? Then send the knuckle off to get sorted while you try and get the BJ off the wishbone.

 

Sounds like your only option of getting the BJ off the wishbone now is to grind off the bolt heads. If you mess up and grind the wishbone it's not so bad as they are relatively cheap from GSF.

 

To remove the BJ from the knuckle (with the halfshaft in place) you can back off the nut until it hits the outer joint casing, then keep backing it off until it forces itself out of its taper in the knuckle. Worked fine for me.

 

The wishbone to subframe bolts are done up tight AF! They're stretch bolts, so you have to tighten them up so much that they yield. Check Haynes etc. but I think the rear bolt is about  90Nm +90deg. or something mental. I remember struggling to do them up!

[CRB]

?Are you able to get a welder into them?

 

The heat imparted is often enough to free the threads and you have a good lever on the bolt/nut.

[Peterj222]

I know its a bit late for you now, but before I start any job like that I always give the nuts / bolts a good soaking with Freeway penetrating fluid (Forget wd40 etc) its blinding stuff and a good excuse to go for a cup of tea and a fag while it works its way in!!

[kentphil1]

As Bodge said, try to get the ball joint from the knuckle by undoing the securing nut. Worst case scenario is to cut the nut from the balljoint by cutting through the balljoint taper.

 

It will mean a new joint, but once the knuckle is out of the way, just grind or shear off the bolt heads, as that plate is not part of the wishbone, and it will just fall away and release the remains of the balljoint.

[sammyhale30]

Thanks for your help guys!  I`m going to try and see if I can remove that nut on the BJ, seems to be an 18 which I don`t have and looks like you can only get an open ended spanner into it because the boot is in the way on the driveshaft! Bloody thing lol.

 

I have one more quick question.  The 3 bolts that hold this plate down, I`m replacing them with 8.8 high tensile bolts.  The bolts that came out have no stamp on them but they are rusted to hell.  Will 8.8 be strong enough or do I need to go for stronger like 10.9 or even 12.9??

[sammyhale30]

Got all bolts out finally and hub is completely loose but driveshaft wont pull out :'(, there is a little bit of wobble there so I'm guessing thats the knackered bearing. My mate says I might need a new drive shaft cus it wont pull out, centre of end has hole in too like someone has been heavy handed before trying to knock it out and my hydraulic wind puller is just eating the hole more..

[sammyhale30]

:(

[sammyhale30]

I darent strike it on the end to loosen it in case I knacker the threads

[sammyhale30]

Mate says ive gotta remove it from gbox side now, so gotta get another damn special tool to take out these spline bolts!

[sammyhale30]

Mate says I gotta remove it from gbox side?

[sammyhale30]

What a f***** game just to remove a hub!

[dave190]

M10 spline

[sammyhale30]

It finally came out the hub, was just being stubborn!

[kentphil1]

The ball joint bolts are single use stretch bolts as they are angle tightened to the correct torque.

[sammyhale30]

All sorted hubs off. The old man sorted it for me using old school techniques, he knocked the nut off using a chisel and hammer lol

[sammyhale30]

Do you mean the 3 m8 bolts kentphil?? Cus the balljoint that sits under the hub just uses a nut.

[kentphil1]

Yes, the bolts that hold the balljoint to the wishbone and tighten into the captive nut plate - http://workshop-manuals.com/skoda/octavia-mk1/chassis/front_suspension_drive_shafts/repairing_front_wheel_suspension/removing_and_installing_the_track_control_arm/

[sammyhale30]

I've installed 12.9 high tensile bolts to replace the originals and did them up hand tight with a bit of loctite on the threads. The originals that came out had loctite on them.

[sammyhale30]

What torque do they need to be?

[sammyhale30]

Can I torque them further now ive put loctite on?

[kentphil1]

Difficult to say now as you have changed the stretch factor of the bolt. the oem torques are at the bottom of the page in that link I posted above.

[sammyhale30]

I did them to 60nm and then gave them 90 degree angle.  There is no where on that page where it ,mentions the torque of those 3 bolts I`m talking about.  I just did the balljoint as hand tight as I could as the nut only seems to go so far before it gets really tight even with a bar.

Edited 6 March, 2015 by sammyhale30

[kentphil1]

2nd item down on the chart for the 3 ball joint bolts - steering joint to track control arm - use new locking washer and bolts - 20nm + 90 degrees