Shock bolts broken

[savage69]

Hey,

98 expedition 2wd.
5.4L
No air suspension
I was trying to replace the front shocks, and all the bolts were seized. I got the top one off but the 2 bottom bolts appeared to be welded to the control arm and they snapped in half when I tried to loosen them. Do I have to replace the whole control arm now? I was thinking about drilling the bolts out?? And putting new ones in. Is it OK to drive this truck without a shock on it till I have the time to fix. Any other ideas on how to replace the two bottoms bolts would be much appreciated!

Thank you.

[rhandwor]

You will lose some control of your truck without a shock so it will be more dangerous to drive. If you center punch the bolts and drill out with the same size drill as the bolts,maybe slightly larger so the new threads will go thru the hole. Use new grade 8 if a U.S. size or a 10.9 bolt if metric which it is 100% chance its metric if it was designed with the truck and not from a previous year. Use the same grade nuts and lockwashers. You may have trouble getting the nuts and lock washers in and a wrench to tighten it.

[way2old]

To add to the previous post. If the shock is out of the way, you may be able to lubricate and use vice grips to screw the broken portion on through the control arm. It is a tight fit for grips and hand to get in there, but it is possible to do.

[savage69]

Thanks, I'm gona try to drill on weds. I really hope it works. Taking the control arm off looks to be a pretty big job. Dam rusty old bolts!

[savage69]

If happens to anyone else? Prolly not cause just my stupid luck, but what I ended up doing was using a grinder to get rid of the stubs from the broken bolts on the control arm. Then a center punch to get the drill started. I then drilled up through the old bolts. (very hard drilling but possible) Dropped the new bolts threw and tightened them up.