lower ball joint + rust problem

[maximus]

hey guys,

my front lower ball joint broke, apparently for the 2nd time.
(Dealer said it was replaced once already in 2001)
The car has spent it's life in VA and PA and has a decent amount of rust underneath. Apparently the dealer had to weld the replacement joint into place, which leaves me in a real bind.
I ground the head off, got the bad ball joint out, but now the bolt stub is still in there and I can't extract it.

I've even tried (and broke) and screw/bolt extractor.

I guess my question is, is there a better way to get into this?
Should I just have it welded on again?
Car has 157k and otherwise has life left in it.

Also I have a completely separate identical parts car.
Which brings up the other question: is the panel that the lower joint is connected to removable? is it a pain? or would that even help?

thanks for your assistance.

[mko]

The dealer did this? OMG

i dont remember if that welded bolt bolts to the subframe only or it goes to the chassis

[Shadow19]

What i would suggest is that you grind the whole entire area thats been welded off including the bolt head. Remove the bolt thats not welded and it will fall out leaving u with a stud from where you grinded the welded side. Saturate the living shit out of the stud with some deep creep and let it sit for a day or so then find a bolt extractor the same size as the stud and hope like a mother fucker it comes out. Honestly thats all i can tell you to do about that. You COULD replace the whole cross member from your parts car but you still have to get that bolt out to even do that i believe.

[maximus]

that last part is what i am afraid of.
even if i replace the whole thing, that broken bolt still has to come out right?

i would take a current pic of what I have now, with the joint removed, but its dark outside now. will try to get one tomorrow.

that washer job on the right/passenger side isn't normal is it?

[maximus]

well I broke another extractor..

and I can't find my camera.
this is nuts.

its been soaking in PB since yesterday, won't budge.

so is it 100% that i would still hafta remove this bolt if i take out the panels?

i'm running out of ideas.

[eksz]

First and foremost you have to grind off the welded parts. Nothing but grinding or drilling is going to break-up/remove the welding build up. Once that is gone consider these techniques to remove rusted/broken/frozen bolts. Repeated applications of heat and cold will help loosen things (expand and contract the parts you want to separate breaking some of the rust bonds). I recommend a heat gun over a torch but you have to use what you have on hand. You can also shock the bolt by striking it firmly with a hammer. A large steel punch will help you better direct the force to the bolt itself. Lastly, If you have a pretty good idea of the edges of the original bolt where it is screwed in you can consider drilling thru the center of it. You'll want to mark the center of the boplt with a center punch and then allign the drill so you drill straight into the bolt (90 degree angle). Use a drill bit that is a little smaller than the bolt. Be careful not to break the drill off in the hole as it is a pain to have the harden steel of the drill bit stuck in the hole. Then use a tap to cut new threads in the hole. Select the proper size tap based upon what the other bolt is. You can do this is stages too. Start with very small drills and taps and gradually increase size. Have to have patience with this because breaking a bit or a tap in the hole will only add to the problem as they are made of much harder steel. Also, mix it up; keep soaking the bolt with PB (got to get the PB soking the length of the bolt so try applying from the top down), apply heat, etc. Attempt to use your extractor. Worse case is you have to tap out the hole completely. I wonder what genius decided to weld that together. Makes me wonder if they didn't break or round off the bolt head and figured to just weld it as a quick fix?

[maximus]

thanks for the input brother.

I'm not sure how to apply heat right now, don't have a torch or heat gun.
Plus it's constantly 15-30 degrees outside for the last month.

And yes, breaking the extractor inside the hole makes the problem worse, which is where I am.

I'll try to get that pic, and resoak some more.

I've never used a tap to make a new thread, hopefully I don't have to go there either.

Thanks again.

[maximus]

[maximus]

I guess I'm gonna pay my buddy to torch it out, then maybe we can get the bolt extracted then weld the panel back into place.

[mko]

if you can weld another bolt to it and then torch it, that thing will surely come out

[RedLine DOHC]

and I would stay away from that dealership, you dont want this to happen to somthing else

[briggs]

be carefull what type of extractor you use, I tried one of those spiral type you get at autozone had it break and split my knuckle open to the bone. I talked to a machine shop guy later (who I brought the bolt to be extracted) and he confirmed they don't work He said the only ones worth using are the long square ones. see link



http://www.google.com/products/catal...391&sa=title#p

[maximus]

turns out, no extractor would have done this job.
had my bro cut it out, turns out the end of the bolt was WELDED to the top panel, too.
so it wasn't going to turn no matter how much force used.
so he replaced the bolt, and welded a new nut into place up top for it to thread into.

pulled out the end of the old balljoint for alignment (see pic)

thanks for all the input dudes.