the dreaded bolt

vr6gordy

vr6gordy

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i got to replace atop mount on drivers side soon and i wanna do it the quickest way poss ... when i fitted lowering spring me and my mate took for the sturt by unding the hub nut and all the lower ball joints then the suspension unit came out all in one go ..but this way took about 3 hours to do ... so i was thinking if the bolt will undo that holds in the top ball joints comes out easy it will only be an hours job to do .... so what the best way to remove it without using a air hammer or heating it up .. can i squirt some magic oil on it to help it come out . there must be an easy way ??????????????? cheers if anyone can help me out with this
 
Buy a new one and just drill the old one out that's what I did last time and took me around an hour to replace the top arms
 
audi upgrades
I've been stumped by the dreaded pinch bolt twice now. The first time I had to get the mechanic at my work to use an oxy acetylene torch. I'd hit it and heated it up myself with a propane torch with no joy. The second time, again the mechanic at my work managed to shift it with a large lump hammer and an oversized punch. Part of the secret is to get the car raised so it's at the right height, that way you can use maximum force. Cleaning the joint with a wire brush and Duck Oil Penetrating Release all helps ( a few days prior). A few whacks and it was out. Use a decent marine grease on the new bolt before tightening up.
 
Looking at the link, the secret is the washers in the pinch. When you hit the bolt, the pinch closes and grips tighter, the washers prevent it closing up. As mentioned, use a good penetrating oil, some form of heat is good (even a paint gun will help a little), and cutting the bolt through the pinches. Try and move the bolt with a spanner back and forth as you hit it. If all else fails, use a drill.
I ended up taking everything off and using a 14lb sledge as a croquet mallet to get out one of my wifes bolts! My car they were fine
 
This bolt is all that is putting me off fitting B5 spring cups to the front of my A4. Glad i have oxy acetaline bottles at work!
 
had an idea to try help me with this ... gonna try make something that sits just below the bolt and seal it so its water tight then gonna fill it up with some good oil and leave it to soak for a week this should help free it up i hope
 
Just spray it every day with wd40 or similar for a week then have a go at it

If it shows no sign of moving after a few tries don't mess about just cut it level centre punch it and drill straight through
 
spraying is ok but if it soaked and fully covered it will get in every where
 
At the risk of raising the ire of the 'you're gonna die' merchants. If you have a while, I'd be tempted to back off the nut a turn or so -just enough to take the pressure off the pinch, stick another nut onto the bolt as a locknut to prevent the nut coming off fully and drive it. The vibration MAY help loosen it during the week. Obviously you'd want to check it each trip. Remember the strain is not on the nut, it's on the bolt holding in the balljoints.

Sometimes it can be worth reviving the ancient Jockanese art of 'shuggling'. Small, jerky, wiggling and tapping whilst pulling can often do better than my sledge croquet plan! If you go balls out to start, you snap the ****** thing.
 
An impact driver is a great tool too ;-)
 
had car jacked up tonight and undid the nut .. the bolt looks rust free ... tryied on the bolt but tyre in way to try undo it but it looks like it might fingers crossed undo (he says holding his breath )
 
if its just the top mount your changing. then you dont need to touch that bolt. undo the arms at the other end on the 16mm bolt/nut. the back bolt comes straight out but the front one is blocked by the inner wing.
undo the lower bolt on the bottom of the shocker and undo the three 16mm's holding the topmount carrier to the inner wing, you can then pull it down and swing it to one side to get the other arm bolt out.
turn both arms to point out of the way then wriggle the leg/top mount carrier out leaving the arms attached to upright.
 
murran said:
if its just the top mount your changing. then you dont need to touch that bolt. undo the arms at the other end on the 16mm bolt/nut. the back bolt comes straight out but the front one is blocked by the inner wing.
undo the lower bolt on the bottom of the shocker and undo the three 16mm's holding the topmount carrier to the inner wing, you can then pull it down and swing it to one side to get the other arm bolt out.
turn both arms to point out of the way then wriggle the leg/top mount carrier out leaving the arms attached to upright.
Click to expand...
is there plenty of room to get it all outthat way ?
 
ah my boss bought one of these klann tools. it was a small fortune to buy.
ive used it a few times, but its very time consuming to use.
the annoying thing with it is, if its properly seized in it just mushrooms the end of the bolt within the tool and then you cant get the damned tool off. had this a couple of times and i swore never to use it again.
but then if its not very seized in, it gets the bolt out fine but you could have very likely have whacked it out with a hammer and punch in a 20th of the time youve spent messing about swapping bits of the tool and tightening/undoing 3 times each.
but you never how badly its seized when you first start!



lol at the video......... also in the instructions that come with the tool it says NOT to use air impact tools on it for risk of damaging the threads!
 
I've not changed one of these myself yet but looking at the design,,,,, because it's a pinch bolt then as you tighten up the bolt it is actually pulling the hole out of allignment as the 2 gaps pull together so to remove the bolt you would have to first remove the nut and then try and straighten up the alignment of the hole before trying to remove the bolt.... the only way i can thing of doing that is by making some hardened wedges that you could hammer into the 2 slots or maybe give it some good news with a cold chisel into each of the slots
 
Does anyone have the part number for the replacement bolts, I'm fitting my coilovers next Monday so want to have everything I may need to hand..

Cheers

YT
 
They are just bolts you don't have to get them from audi just measure them and go to a local nut and bolt supplies
 
Thanks Stu, sure they're not high tensile or anything with them being pinch bolts?
 
No I thought they was at first so got two at over 8 quid each and they are just standard 8.8's!
 
finaly putting my new top mount on tomorrow.. wish me luck with the bolt
 
i gave mine plenty of wd40 over a weeks period and didnt have no issues with mine thank god but after i replaced my springs my old springs for some reason dont look like the originals.... so i may of been lucky that someone had removed and regreased them up i suppose.. atleast the H&R are looking lower now after a week settling
 
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