I might be looking too far, but my problem is, I cant break loose the bottom bolts to the struts in the rear. i tried some pb blaster, and an cheater bar, but its not popping loose. What should I do? My question seems kinda silly, but I'd like advice whether to try to bust the bolt off or what because i cant get either bolt loose. The service info I have says it should come off with a basic wrench, and it dont budge. I have some kyb gr2s just dying to be installed.

-Scott

97 accord se 182k miles

 

On my '98, the bolt through the bottom of the strut goes in from the rear. And the nut it threads into, on the front side, is part of the knuckle. You won't budge that. But make sure you're cranking on the bolt on the back, not the nut on the front.

Sorry if that's too obvious. You've probably tried everything already.

 

Have you tried using an impact?....

i have done struts on an accord in my auto class in school.. i had the same problem but then i took an impact with some lapping compound.. and then it busted loose.

 

Hey, what's up? I'm in the same situation. I broke the heads off both the rear lower shock bolts last week. Yesterday I took apart the whole lower control arm assembly. It meant disconnecting the sway bar, links, upper control arm. I had to take the caliper off plus some other stuff. I'm doing one side at a time so I can use the other side as a reference when I put the crap back together. I used a cut off wheel to get the shock off. I drilled a bunch of holes through the bushing then cut through what was left(which was a bitch). Then when I got the center part out I used a hacksaw to cut through the outer sleeve of the bushing(the metal ring). I used a chisel to tap it out once I cut through it. Now whenever I get my bushings that I ordered from T.A.S. I'll take it somewhere to get my bushings pressed in. I'm gonna install Skunk2 coilover sleeves and KYB-AGXs.

 

wow..that is a lot of stuff you had to get off..calipers and all? I have 98 accord. I unbolted the anti sway bar mounts on both sides. Un bolted the pin from one side. (one had the bolt fixed to the suspension arm.) The tuff part was that I had to squeeze two spring compressors up the wheel well to unload the tension. Then I unbolted everything else from the top, including the bolt that holds the whole assembly together. Everything drop down after that. When I put the tokico kit back up the assemmbly was shorter so the whole thing went back in a lot easier.

 

I've got to resurrect this thread because I'm running into the exact same problem on my '00 Accord. I've tried just using a hammer and ratchet, a 4 foot torque bar and now a 240 lb·ft impact wrench and NOTHING seems to budge this thing. I'm sure I'm on the bolt too and not on the welded nut it threads into.

I just replaced the front shocks and the head of the bolt that tightens the wishbone around the damper sheared off, it took the better part of 2 days to drill through that sucker and I don't want to go through that again.

Any tips? What's the deal with lapping compound?

 

It is nearly impossible. Make sure you get the extra bolts from Honda before so you can slide them into after you get the old ones out. They are $7.75ish a piece.

On mine which I did about 3 weeks ago it took almost 12 hours to get the bolts out. We used about 10 dremel cut off wheels and a bunch of sawza blades to get through them after burning out the bushings with a torch. Good luck.

To press the new bushings in we wrapped them in teflon tape and used a vice.