Hello,

i changed my rear right shock and it was child’s play! A walk in the park!

rear left was binding so I torched the nut on the other side with some heat and the bolt came out a bit but the sleeve is simply spinning inside its bushing.

ive tried and tried. I tried whacking the bolt with a punch but the tip is conical so it’s not easy. I tried inserting a screw driver, trying to grip the metal sleeve with vice grips but it still spins when I used the impact wrench.

im just gonna drive as is and get a mechanic to install the rear left shock. I just hope I don’t chowder the threads too much.

any suggestions to help me get out of this pickle?

 

It's possible that your jack placement is putting the bolt in a bind and making it more difficult to remove.
Do you have the rear of your car on jack stands? If so, try releasing the pressure your jack is putting on the shock and bolt.

Alternatively, since you're replacing the shock you don't have to worry about damaging it. Similarly, you can replace the bolt (you probably should anyway since you've been beating on it) so the simple solution is to use a cut-off wheel to cut the bolt.

 

thanks for the suggestion. I’ve tried with different placements jack placements and have had no luck. I do not own a cutoff wheel unfortunately. Even if I did, I can’t get a bolt over the weekend (Honda parts stores are closed).

How would you cut off the bolt? I only really have access to the head. If I cut that off it might fuse to the hole or there would probably be enough bolt shaft left to stay in the hole.

 

You could cut through the sleeve too, I think?

Or grind down the bolt head and punch it out if it's still stuck. Or drill out the remains in the worst case.

I ended up doing something similar on my exhaust, first I only managed to cut at the red line (the flanges were closer than with the new exhaust), which separated them. I then ground off the remaining part, and punched out the stuck bolt from the old flange:



There's always a risk of something getting stuck, you just need to be prepared to cut off even more stuff