/diy/ - Do It Yourself

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New springs are like 700 bucks. So today I drove 2 hours to a U Pull scrapyard to get a matching set. I arrive with a breaker bar, a cheater bar, some sockets, and some penetrating oil. This was naive. All of the bolts were incredibly seized. Using a 5 foot cheater bar had no effect. The springs are still sitting in the junk yard. If I can remove the springs they will only cost me $40.

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Which brings me to my problem. How do I remove the springs?

I have heard good things about impact wrenches. But if a breaker bar can't get the job done, would an impact wrench really be any better?

Also, they have a pants on head retarded policy at this scrap yard. No torches allowed. I am tempted to just sneak one in anyway.

>>1464851
Yes an impact wrench would manage it, you'd have to get a cordless one to bring it out to the junk yard.

>>1464851
Cordless recip saw. Several batteries. several metal blades. Done.

>>1464855
I guess I believe you. But why is an impact wrench so much better? Its going to suck driving there again if it doesn't work.

>>1464859
Ok, I bought a corded sawzall and a corded impact wrench for cheap at a yard sale today. I have a 3000 watt inverter and I am working on a solar power system. I think I will buy the batteries for my solar system and then lug the inverter/batteries to the yard.

>>1464867
>But why is an impact wrench so much better?

Because an impact can deliver stupid amounts of torque due to the fact that it's actually an impulse device. Know how difficult it is to drive a nail just by trying to push it in, yet even light taps with a hammer will (eventually) get it through? Impact works on the same principle. The less the bolt wants to move, the more force is produced. The vibration of the impact also helps to work the bolt loose.

I can't guarantee it'll work with a budget impact, given that I'm assuming you're not a manlet and a 5ft cheater still didn't work. But there's just about nothing short of massive architectural fasteners that a 3/4" rattle gun won't get loose eventually.

Or just outright break off, fair warning.

Could also rent one of those ridiculous 1" impacts that do 2000lb/ft+.

>>1464855
I just read wikipedia and I get it now. Impact wrenches contain a large rotating mass. This mass is what creates the force. The wrench spins it up and then applies it suddenly.

The reaction force is applied to the mass and not to the body of the tool. So when you hold it, the force is not being exerted on you. It exerts a much higher force than a human is capable of exerting and it does it in a "pulse".

>>1464875
Thanks. My impact is 1/2" 7.5A 900 Watts. The rental sounds fun, but anything bigger and I might have trouble running it off the inverter.

>>1464877
The relevant spec is 250 ft-lbs of torque. So yeah not as good as those 1" impacts you mentioned

>>1464844
LOTS of fucking heat OP. Lots of heat. Take a mapp gas hand torch and heat the frame they're screwed into until it's damned hot, then take the beeswax candle you brought with you and touch it to the base of the bolt and circle around it. The wax will wick up the threads and help break it free.

If the wax doesn't do the trick:
Hammer the fuck out of the bolt head and the frame to try and break the rust scale, then heat both the bolt and the frame area up as hot as you can fucking get it without melting it and spray the aerosolized whatever (PB blaster/wd40/computer duster/whatever) on JUST the bolt to cool and shrink the bolt inside of the heat-expanded frame and back that rusty piece of shit right out with your torque multiplier (breaker bar with 5' pipe)

Careful with that impact I've broke a lot of bolts and stripped a few.

>>1464885
I would love to do that but as I mentioned the scrap yard has a stupid "no torch no jack" policy. Good to know for when I install the part though.

I can smuggle in a small mapp torch in my tool box. I will probably do that as a last resort. If I get caught I could get kicked out and banned.

>>1464881
Good luck mang. I don’t think that 250ft-lb corded wrench will do much more than that cheater bar but keep hammering and hammering and pray for it to break loose.

The cordless 1/2” impacts that people use for that rusty ass stuff are rated over 1000ft-lbs. but will cost you $250+.

>>1464867
Jesus Christ is this real

>>1464904
Smuggle the torch and the torque gun in bro. If you're out of earshot and understand and sign the waiver that you release them from risk then fuck their no torch rule

>>1464912
Going on a limb and saying the no torch is to protect their assets from some retard starting a car on fire, not about personal injury.

They make induction bolt heaters, so you can skirt past the no torch rule, but Im assuming that would make the cost savings redundant unless you can find someone willing to borrow or rent one to you.

dude get a cordless angle grinder and a couple zipcuts and just the bolts it would cost like 130 bucks and take 20 mins

dont waste your time with a corded impact inverter and a solar set up lol

>>1464845
there are places that sell individual leaves for springs

>>1464845
soak it with penetrating oil and give it a few days, then try your cheater bar again.

>>1464845

>New springs are like 700 bucks.

You drive a Maserati truck or something?

>>1464844
Youre never getting those bolts out without oxy acetylene. Use a Sawzall and cut the shackle in half. Bring it home, use a real torch, and most likely you're going to be melting it out. However, sometimes it's possible to melt through the shackle to the metal sleeve that the bolt is seized to and hit it with an air hammer.

I've been a mechanic for 10 years.

>>1464844
I worked at a leaf spring shop OP. First, spray some penetrating lubcricant on that shackle and eye bolts as they’ll give you the most trouble. While that does it’s thing start working on the U-bolts. Hammer on the bolt or heat the nut, make sure you save the bolt as you’ll want new ones in your truck and you’ll need the length and bend of it. Assuming you can get bolts loose, you might want a small rod to hammer them out if they don’t come out easy. Taking some weight off the front end will help with this and might be necessary to remove the springs.

>>1467155
>Youre never getting those bolts out without oxy acetylene.

I have pic related.
My son is restoring a mid 80s Blazer (full size, 4wd)
He used my Milwaukee impact to take off the front and rear axles and springs.
It wasn't a problem.
>>1467155
>I've been a mechanic for 10 years.
That tree should be giving lots of shade by now.

>>1467446
Either you live in the west or you're a liar. No idea what your tree comment means probably because I don't speak faggot liar. Or maybe simply idiot. The fuck does 4wd have to do with the bolt in a leaf spring? Nothing, you fucking idiot.
I guarantee if op couldn't get them loose with a cheater bar of that size they're siezed way beyond an impact like that. Ffs have non of you broken loose what was too tight for your own? Granted a lot of you are running prosumer stuff but fuck, impacts are not that strong.

>>1467488
>Either you live in the west or you're a liar
there are no liars in the west
>>1467488
>No idea what your tree comment means probably because I don't speak faggot liar
It means you're a shade-tree mechanic
>>1467488
>The fuck does 4wd have to do with the bolt in a leaf spring?
4wd with leaf springs on front and rear axles - twice as many bolts
more evidence of you being a shade-tree mechanic
>>1467488
>impacts are not that strong
box says: 1400 ft lbs when breaking nuts loose

>>1467446
NUT-BUSTING TORQUE

>>1467404
Not OP but mechanic.. if you heat the eye bolts, won't that ruin the bushings? Worked at a leaf spring shop? Feel sorry for you. That shit's the worst. Get the nut off, the bolt is seized in the sleeve anyway. Can't swing a hammer because the body is in the way. Air hammer only works sometimes. I couldnt imagine doing that full time

>>1467446
>My son is restoring a mid 80s Blazer (full size, 4wd)
Literally retarded.

>>1467502
>more bolts means the individual bolt is hard to break loose
Down syndrome common in the west as well?
>shade tree mechanic
No idea what that means but I assume credentials. I'm an ase certified master tech.
>box says 1400 ft pounds
Yeah, let's see any gun torque a bolt to that. Never worked a day in your life confirmed

Milwaukee rotary tool with metal cutoff wheels, cut the nuts off.

>>1467514
Heating the eye would be much of an issue assuming you don’t turn the bolt red hot. You might mess the rubber slightly but you’re also getting worn springs from a scrap yard so that doesn’t seem to be the biggest concern.

>>1467527
Mack trunion U-Bolts get torqued to 1400~ with a 1in Ingersoll.

>>1464875
In this case, breaking if the head of the bolt should work for OP as well. He can trash most of the shit around it to get the springs.

>>1467616
You’re not gonna get those off with an 18V 1/2” gun.

The newer cordless ones do have some balls though. I watch my mechanic take off a lot of suprising stuff with his mid-torque DeWalt 1/2”.

>>1464855
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H0UJE5Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_xJ9OBb5F9PF3R

Can recommend. 1200ftlbs of torque.

>>1467711

i use a 1/2 inch milwaukee every day and its incredible how powerful they are

it will probably take them off with barely a grunt

still though op, cordless 4" grinder and a couple zipcuts

be done in 20 mins

>>1467616
>relentlessly moving the goal posts
I'm talking about the shackles, which have bushings cock breath. The construction of which is a metal sleeve inside a rubber bushing. When the bolt seizes inside this bushing, it's seized to the metal sleeve. When you hit that with an impact gun, the rubber absorbs it and the rust laughs at your onions levels of intelligence. If his breaker bar failed, and impact has no shot at all.

>>1468336
Pictures for the I'll informed

>>1468336
This tho. 100%

>>1468336
>When you hit that with an impact gun, the rubber absorbs it and the rust laughs at your onions levels of intelligence. If his breaker bar failed, and impact has no shot at all.

Perhaps on some. My 65 ford truck needed new rear leaf springs, and I put a breaker bar on the bolt head and an impact wrench on the nut, and after about 10 minutes per bolt managed to remove all of them. That was an 1/2" IR wrench on a 30 gallon tank. If I had had a larger wrench and tank it wouldn't have been such an ordeal, but the rubber had nothing to do with the difficulty.

>>1468420

pic shows old springs, old bolts, one new bushing.

>>1468436
I'll concede its probably possible on some way less serious cases, like I said, maybe out west things are different for example.
My only problem with the advice of an impact gun is that a breaker bar, especially if you put a pipe on it, has a better chance of working than an impact (not on the nuts. They'll come off no problem) because the bolt seizes to the bushings metal sleeve so the impact heavy whacks are just absorbed by the bushings where a bar is a consistent tug.
So I assert that if the bar didn't work, they're seized to the point of needing heat.
My favorite way is melting the bushings out and whacking the sleeve with an air hammer. It takes a second once you have access to wreck the corrosion away however it definitely requires a nasty fire so usually I end up heating the bolt cherry red and using my impact gun. Still a fire but no where near as bad. I've had that not even work though.

>>1464981
this option is actually an investment tho. only comes in corded afaik. i have to get replacement coils for mine come to think of it.

I just had to replace a broken out leaf spring bracket on my dad's old truck. After a week of going at it with an impact hammer, an angle grinder, a sawzall, PB blaster and a propane torch trying to burn out the bushing we gave up and gave it to the redneck down the road. He got it out with some kind of vise or maybe a bottle jack.

OP you don't need the truck intact so the easiest thing for you to do is angle grinder off bracket / carriage bolt holding the leaf spring to the cab then when you get home and can work try to get the lower bracket half off the leafspring.

Also at least on the truck I worked on the nuts were way too corroded to use a cheater bar and there wouldn't have been enough room to swing one anyway

>>1464844
What kind of junk yard can't just burn the mounts right off and have you take the whole thing home to fuck with?

I have one of those 1/2" milwaukee impacts fucking phenomenal I got mine used at the pawn shop for $50 but they retail for way more so it might be worth calling some other wreckers that will pull the part for you.

I do love the impact the only bolts it had problem with was the body bolts on a 3/4 ton ford the rubber just soaked up all the force

>>1464845
Use PB blaster for seized bolts, I believe it's sold at Autozone but I may be wrong. Take a blowtorch with you too

Get an air wrench and a scuba tank

>>1464844
Milwaukee fuel and dewalt XR impacts are both very good. You might actually be better off getting a small torch set tho. Either option will cost you about the same but with a torch you can still get shit off if the impact won’t do it. Those impacts are very nice to have tho

>>1473020
I tried out a Milwaukee high torque impact once... That shit is insane. You can snap studs if you're not careful. I would not wield that power responsibly, so I didn't buy it.

why not try an actual truck shop and see if they can arc a spring for you?

should be way less than 700.

Just had to do the leaf spring shackles on my S10 because salt tends to make them evaporate. Only one bolt came out, all the others broke or weren't going anywhere. What I did was cut the head of the bolt off it it didnt break off already, then stack washers on the end and tighten a nut on it it so the bolt would pull itself out