Lower Strut bolts stuck, out of ideas

[rkvons]

Originally Posted by skycor

i have a 5lb hammer. and a torch. i spent hours heating and beating these things. i don't think the hulk get heave gotten them out. plus, you only have so much room to swing. if i had more room, id'a used a sledge hammer. still, if there was a squeezy tool like i had, but better designed, it would make quick work out of strut bolts.

I was working on a '98 Malibu that had a broken spring in the rear strut. Seems like an easy job right? Well I could not get those bolts out on it either. Did not try the C-clamp. That's a good idea. I even undid other links to drop it down lower to really get a good swing on it with a sledge. Nope. Anyways, I ended up changing the spring while it was still on the vehicle. I used spring compressors and everything. It was like the most challenging puzzle I've ever worked on. Really fun.

[undtschuss]

I recently spent hours working on drivers side and for most of the work listed above. By the time I got to passenger side it was sorted out...I got the passenger strut bolt out in about 15 minutes...

Grind both head and tip of mount bolt down to the closest point possible... 5 min carefully grinding.
Drill into the bolt about 1/8" with a good bit that is just shy of bolt size (my bolts were 12m). 2 min drilling on each side.
Place slide hammer on strut mount and hammer it out of channel. By far this was the least amount of time spent removing these rusted in struts.

Good luck and use sharp bit...