R51 rear shocks removal help

[brickbox]

Looking for some help with how to remove some severely rusted on rear shock bolts on my 2011 Pathfinder.
Dousing in PB Blaster and using a 14” cheater pipe on the 1/2” Stanley ratchet well broke the ratchet.

I tried to use my cheap impact from HF on the lower bolt on either sides. You guessed it, nothing.

So I soaked the bolts in pb blaster. My plan is to get a 15” craftsman breaker bar from Lowe’s and use the 14” cheater bar to see if that’ll do the trick.

Any suggestions on how ya’ll have gotten your seized shock bolts off?

[AlanAZ]

Heat. Blowtorch on the nut, then impact wrench. Failing that, hacksaw (I recently did that on a Camry front control arm bolt - not fun.)

[VStar650CL]

Heat. Blowtorch on the nut, then impact wrench. Failing that, hacksaw (I recently did that on a Camry front control arm bolt - not fun.)

+1. Carbide cutting wheel is quicker than a hacksaw if you happen to own an angle grinder.

[brickbox]

Thanks guys. It took me and a friendly neighbor 4 hours to get the damn lower bolt off. Between a butane torch, 5" cut off wheel, generous amounts of PB blaster, Craftsman breaker bar and a 1/2" Craftsman ratchet, we were able to get off the bolt. What a nightmare. Going to put some POR 15 on the exposed areas.
The captive nut and the bolt were seized together as expected. But the bolt had also seized itself the whole way within the strut bushing sleeve.

My plan is to loosen the upper bolt on the other side and attempt the lower bolt on the other side tomorrow.

I had a coupe of follow up questions:
1. Do I have to assemble this side (the passenger side which is now disassembled) prior to disassembling the other side?
2. The captive nut on the bottom stripped itself and broke itself free of the weldment on the rear sub-frame cradle. Can I just put a replacement flange nut on there and torque it down tomorrow? I ordered 4 new bolts and the nuts for the upper bolts from the local dealer. $40 for it all, what a rip off...

[VStar650CL]

1) No, you can disassemble both as long as both sides are supported.

2) Nut and bolt is fine, but use a split lockwasher under the nut. You don't ever want it to move, you'll end up with a mystery noise that'll make you -- hmm -- nuts.

[brickbox]

Awesome, thanks for the quick response! I plan to use a flanged nut on the bottom. Do you think I should still use a split lock washer?
I also plan to be a little generous with the anti seize. Rolling the dice here with FCS shocks....

Gotta admit, I miss my QX4. Really feel the anti corrosion treatment went down with the R51s. Guess that's what cost savings do for you...

[VStar650CL]

Gotta admit, I miss my QX4. Really feel the anti corrosion treatment went down with the R51s. Guess that's what cost savings do for you...

Lol, you can't build a Rolls for a nickel. DeLorean tried, and look where it got him. Now, if he could've really built them with Flux Capacitors....

[brickbox]

Lol, you can't build a Rolls for a nickel. DeLorean tried, and look where it got him. Now, if he could've really built them with Flux Capacitors....

Lol fair enough! In other news, the bottom bolt on the drivers side came off with a fair bit of fighting, but it’s off nonetheless. I was able to get the nut out on the top bolt as well. But…..

The shock sleeve is rusted to the bolt at the top and I can’t free spin it out. The upper bolt is in a really tight spot and there’s a fuel line behind it. So I’m very very hesitant to use power tools over there. Not sure if I want to hear the shock either, but I’m open to trying it.

At this point:
1. I could try to find a pair of universal joints that are impact rated and give that a shot to see if it would break the sleeve free off the bolt?
2. Heat the sleeve and try to use a breaker bar/impact and see if that does anything?

Any other thoughts how you get the top bolt off?

[VStar650CL]

Yep, that looks nasty. If impact doesn't do it and you need to cut or make room for a cheater bar, chop the shock off the bushing first to make yourself some room.

[brickbox]

Alright so here’s the results of the day.

I’m still struggling with getting the upper bolt off on the passenger side. It’s really narrow access and has the fuel line and fuel tank right behind.

I used a hack saw blade to take the shock off to get some more room. 2.5 hours of my life gone..

I don’t think I can still get a sawzall in there without hitting/scraping/gouging the surrounding area of the sub frame (marked in red).

Any ideas how to do this outside of taking a hacksaw blade and taking an entire day to slowly cut through the sleeve? That sounds like a painful frustrating day that I would like to avoid if possible

[VStar650CL]

If there's no room to knock it through with a punch then I think you're into cutting it somehow. Pretty crappy the way they arranged those flanges.

[brickbox]

Yeah those flanges are really crappy. If they gave a little more clearance, I would have taken a sawzall through it.

I made some progress on the one side of the bushing with a hacksaw. Next question is: how do I get to bolt head and snap it off? Can’t get any access back in there. Can I just just use a hammer and a chisel?

[VStar650CL]

I made some progress on the one side of the bushing with a hacksaw. Next question is: how do I get to bolt head and snap it off? Can’t get any access back in there. Can I just just use a hammer and a chisel?

Yep, just whacking it off should be fine for that.

[AZhitman]

Also, toss that butane torch in your heat-shrink electronics tool drawer and go get a [yellow] MAP gas bottle...

It's not as hot as oxy-acetylene, but a hell of a lot more heat (and efficiency) than butane.

I'd probably get a reinforced carbide wheel on an angle grinder and insert it under the nut (to the right of your right-most red vertical line in pic) and lop it off. Use the flange as your guide and let the cutoff wheel ride along it (but don't let it grind off too much of the flange).

Pics and threads like this make me thankful for our lack of rust, even on my cars that are 60 years old.

[VStar650CL]

Pics and threads like this make me thankful for our lack of rust, even on my cars that are 60 years old.

Yep, it's the thing I loved the very best about El Paso. In the desert, rust sleeps.

[mdmellott]

An angle grinder with a 4" or 4-1/2" cut-off wheel should have that off in a New York minute. Cut each side, close to the what's left of the shock, straight through the bushing and the bolt.

[brickbox]

You guys out west and in the south are really missing out on all the fun dealing with the rust. What’s the fun in car projects if there’s no rust?!

Kidding aside, the cheap sawzall from HF wasn’t cutting it. So I had to enlist the help of my neighbor and of course offer a 6 pack in return. We were able to cut the sleeve/bolt off with the angle grinder, but what a PITA.

Anyways, with everything off, I have coated the exposed areas in POR15. Once dried tomorrow, the new shocks go on.
Now I’ll be slathering the sleeve and the bolt with generous amounts of aluminum anti seize. I’ll be putting some on the threads as well.

The bolts get torqued to 129lb-ft according to the FSM. Should I reduce it by 25% to account for the anti seize on the threads?

[mdmellott]

The bolts get torqued to 129lb-ft according to the FSM. Should I reduce it by 25% to account for the anti seize on the threads?

That's generally a good rule to follow or just torque to the low end of the torque spec range. Since the FSM doesn't give a range in this case, dropping the the torque to 97 ft-lb is still good-n-tight.

[AZhitman]

That gives me the heebie-jeebies just looking at it.

If I go to inspect a car to buy, if I can't turn a control arm bolt with a 1/2" drive 2' ratchet, I walk away.

You're a brave soul, brother. Glad you're making headway. If I lived there, I'd be hosing down my entire undercarriage with FluidFilm every weekend.

[The Grand Pooh-Bah]

I just did my control arms and shocks in the rear. When I put everything back together I used WD-40 Dry Lube on all my bolts. I like to think about the long term, and making someone's job easier than what I went through.

[brickbox]

That gives me the heebie-jeebies just looking at it.

If I go to inspect a car to buy, if I can't turn a control arm bolt with a 1/2" drive 2' ratchet, I walk away.

You're a brave soul, brother. Glad you're making headway. If I lived there, I'd be hosing down my entire undercarriage with FluidFilm every weekend.

ha, thanks! I think I would be lucky to turn any of the suspension bolts front or back with the Craftsman breaker bar I have. But, the car is back on the ground and a quick test drive revealed no sounds. Bonus, the cheap FCS shocks seem to handle the ruts and RR crossings without causing it to bottom out any more.

The old shocks were definitely toast. I think there was still fluid in there but there was very little rebound. I could compress them with one hand and they took about 15 mins to extend back to the normal position.

Funny you mention FluidFilm. Prior to doing the shocks, I had scuffed the chassis and done the 3 phase treatment by POR15 on all accessible parts (except what's in the engine bay) and coated the rails and cross members insides with FluidFilm
I'm hoping from here on, I can just hit FF on the underside late Fall every year and the POR15 will be a hard enough layer that wont corrode with the salt.

[brickbox]

I just did my control arms and shocks in the rear. When I put everything back together I used WD-40 Dry Lube on all my bolts. I like to think about the long term, and making someone's job easier than what I went through.

Totally agree. I coated the bolts in the grey bottle antiseize and also applied a thin coating on the inside of the shock sleeve as well.

Can't wait to do the front struts

[stustev]

I just replaced the front shocks on my 2005 Pathfinder. I had to use a hack saw blade to cut all six (three per side) bolts as the nuts were rusted on and spun the bolts in the housing.