I've had both my SPC rear toe adjusters get seized in the bushings. First time an alignment shop broke something trying to align the car a couple years ago and they replaced that side. Recently a different alignment shop says the other side is seized. I confirmed it was seized and I couldn't break it loose so I cut it out this weekend. How do people normally get these out? It seemed way too hard to cut through the bushing and bolt with my demolition saw.

Do I need to do something to keep this from happening again when I replace the parts? I'm sure I put anti seize on the threads but probably not the bushings when I installed years ago. Not sure if I'm going to try and press the bad bushing out or replace the whole spring arm bucket. After crawling around under the car I see a few bushing that don't look great so maybe I'll replace a bunch of them all at once.

 

Just to verify the problem, your SPC toe bolts are seized up inside the factory rubber bushing on the inboard edge of the spring bucket?

 

Yes that's correct. The right side was completely stuck and penetrating oil and heat and pounding couldn't get the bolt out. It was even really difficult to cut it out. But I watched some youtube video of a guy with an S2000 or something and he said it took him a bunch of blades too so maybe that's normal. Both sides got seized up after a few years so I'd prefer to do something this time so it doesn't happen again. I think I burned up a set of rear tires because the toe setting was crap. The fronts still look great and the rears went down to the cords before I noticed. I'd like to learn some way to home align with strings or something to get it close or to be able to check what the alignment shops are telling me after they align the car.

 

If I had to cut them off I would probably either go up through the bushing and slice the middle of the bolt. Or (more likely) just take a cold chisel and hammer the cut off the nut end of the bolt.

Milwaukee "torch" sawzall blades work really well but you still have to cool the blade with WD40 or RapidTap regardless of manufacturer or you're going to overheat the blade. I like those torch blades because they have these raised grooves on the sides and a thinner kerf so you have less friction once the blade is sunk into whatever you're cutting.

The trick is don't just go full throttle ***** out with the sawzall, only cut at about half throttle or you just melt the teeth off the blade. Hammer and cold chisel (GearWrench makes EXCELLENT cold chisels) works really good too though. Some people like using an air chisel but for something smaller like these bolts a short handle sledge and a cold chisel will have that bolt head or nut cut off in probably 20-30 good whacks. The trick to using a cold chisel is to hold the chisel with a pair of channel lock pliers in case you miss you won't crush your fingers.

It's funny how being a union electrician is basically just a fancy way of saying "You're a metal fabricator, a mechanic, and you occasionally get to work with electricity".