2000 Century Front Struts

[jwichman]

Replacing half shafts on my century and thought I would replace the front struts while I was there, however I cannot remove the lower strut mounting bolts. The nuts on each bolt broke free pretty easily however the bolts are locked in tight. I've tried twisting them, pounding on them (with the nuts on the end), I've raised and lowered the lower control arm via a jack triying different positions. So far none of my efforts have suceeded. Any thoughts or suggestions.
Thanks in advance.

[thisnametooktolong]

The condition that you describe is not common. It is Norm. ( I hate Norm) A little breaker oil may help but the best way is to place an impact on the bolt untill it spins and beat the threaded end in and or do the impact and beat at the same time for the tough ones. No impact you say? Then just a socket with a cheater bar and still hit the threaded bolt end with a BFH. You should place a bolt on the end so that you dont bugger up the threads in the process.

Even in the later way, I have never been beat by those bolts. That is why they say in the books to replace them. Not because you have to, its just that they get buggered up some times in the process

[jwichman]

Originally Posted by thisnametooktolong

The condition that you describe is not common. It is Norm. ( I hate Norm) A little breaker oil may help but the best way is to place an impact on the bolt untill it spins and beat the threaded end in and or do the impact and beat at the same time for the tough ones. No impact you say? Then just a socket with a cheater bar and still hit the threaded bolt end with a BFH. You should place a bolt on the end so that you dont bugger up the threads in the process.

Even in the later way, I have never been beat by those bolts. That is why they say in the books to replace them. Not because you have to, its just that they get buggered up some times in the process

Thanks for the feedback. Maybe I was not hitting the bolts hard enough. Chilton manual indicates the steering knuckle to be somewhat fragile and I feared beating on the strut mount could possibly damage it, maybe not? The strut bolts are not a standard hex head bolt, they have an oblong head with only two flats. What type of socket will work on these? I got a open wrench on them but couldn't budge them. A socket with a cheater bar would probably help a lot. A piece of pipe on my open end wrench would work but the bolts aren't orientated to allow room for a cheater pipe.

[thisnametooktolong]

that is why I recomended using a impact wrench on the bolt to get it to spin. That is also why I said to have some one turn the bolt with a cheater as you hit the bolt in. Good luck, and I bet when you are done you will hate Norm too.