Pinch bolt/stuck punch probllem

[Tjtubbs]

Long story short, in battling with one of the upper pinch bolts, i got the 3/8 punch stuck, and i mean stuck. I snuck a cutoff saw inbetween the slits in the spindle and cut through it there, got the one half of the punch out, but figure i have 1/2"+ still stuck in there, along with half of the pinch bolt ( with a hole drilled through it). Just went and bought some cobalt drill bits, and can barely even make a dent in it with a 1/4" bit. Tried heating it and hitting the other side with an air hammer but not a chance, laid on it for a solid hour. Ideas?

[KAMP]

Have you used something like PB blaster? You’ll need to soak and re-soak the bolts. Try overnight if possible... I would have started with that before doing the additional steps you did, only to prevent any damage to the metal housing.

I’m in Cali and have a lower mileage 2016 but still soaked them before doing my coilovers. Yes, they came out like butter but the lack of rust is the factor. Otherwise, I’ve had plenty of rust headaches in the past when living in the rust belt.

[Tjtubbs]

Appreciate it but yea its been soaking in pb blaster for a week now. The bolt itself i was dealing with about 1mm at a time, but its the screwing myself getting the punch stuck in there thats killing me, that has to be the hardest steel known to man. I may literally try borrowing a jackhammer from work and finding a punch long enough i csn use with that

[Fresh.S4]

i found using a jack to help relieve the tension helps a lot.... like a lot!

[KAMP]

i found using a jack to help relieve the tension helps a lot.... like a lot!

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing but the fact that the punch is stuck inside there now, that will have to be taken out first.

[Allan691]

i found using a jack to help relieve the tension helps a lot.... like a lot!

I read this as: “I found using a jack hammer to help relieve the tension..”

[Allan691]

Long story short, in battling with one of the upper pinch bolts, i got the 3/8 punch stuck, and i mean stuck. I snuck a cutoff saw inbetween the slits in the spindle and cut through it there, got the one half of the punch out, but figure i have 1/2"+ still stuck in there, along with half of the pinch bolt ( with a hole drilled through it). Just went and bought some cobalt drill bits, and can barely even make a dent in it with a 1/4" bit. Tried heating it and hitting the other side with an air hammer but not a chance, laid on it for a solid hour. Ideas?

That sucks. I just spent my whole weekend fighting with control arm bolts.. so I feel your pain. How much is a new knuckle/suspension assembly..? Dare I ask..? At some point time/pain equals money.

[maksym]

Long story short, in battling with one of the upper pinch bolts, i got the 3/8 punch stuck, and i mean stuck. I snuck a cutoff saw inbetween the slits in the spindle and cut through it there, got the one half of the punch out, but figure i have 1/2"+ still stuck in there, along with half of the pinch bolt ( with a hole drilled through it). Just went and bought some cobalt drill bits, and can barely even make a dent in it with a 1/4" bit. Tried heating it and hitting the other side with an air hammer but not a chance, laid on it for a solid hour. Ideas?

Would a carbide dremmel burr fit to grind it out? Can also try freezing the punch with A/C refrigirant or heating the metal around.


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[hmc2261]

I had a similar issue when I replaced my upper control arms, the pinch bolt was "S"'d from the previous owner over tightening and reusing hardware.
I had to use an impact hammer on the bolt head to work it out. If you have access to that, try that.
for the punch, once the bolt is out, come from the other side with a smaller punch and knock out the stuck punch.

EDIT: Didnt see the part on trying the air hammer already. My bad.

[ShelbyM3]

I’ve had to replace the upright and it was like $900 about 4 years ago just for the part.
I’d recommend big channel locks and compressing the upper control arm mount and the upright together as hard as you can and then try to punch out the remainder. Also a jack under the rotor can’t hurt to relieve more tension while compressing the joint.
Best of luck!


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[Tjtubbs]

Thanks for all the advice, got a harder hitting air hammer from the shop ill try, everything ive seen about carbide stuff is its so brittle basically if its not set up in a machine shop you'll just keep snapping bits but ill have to look into the dremel thing

[hgparrish]

Isn’t there a spreader tool used to remove the pinch bolts?


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[maksym]

Isn’t there a spreader tool used to remove the pinch bolts?


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Maybe this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5BLDNAepbs

[Tjtubbs]

Yea i saw a post where someone looked into that and it was like 1500 bucks, but id almost pay that just to assert my dominance

[Snowmonkey]

Is the control arm removed from the car? If it is aluminum and the punch is steel, you can let it sit in an acidic Alum (pickling spice) solution for a while and it will dissolve the steel chemically.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHN0v2wYjXQ

[hgparrish]

Here is a great DIY video for this job. Very well done and documents the pinch bolt struggle.


https://youtu.be/1Yc-y3o_kR4


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[hgparrish]

Heres another decent video.


https://youtu.be/_NySIblxcB4


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[Ashtonts]

You're likely going to have to pull the upright and press the piece out. There's limited space to get in there and do a whole lot with the upright in situ. I just went through this with my pinch bolt when I bagged my car. We tried every trick in the book (and then some), and that was what we had to resort to.

[bronz]

i used ball joint press c-clamp like this

[KAMP]

^^^^^ not a bad idea.

[S4'ed]

Not that this will help you at this point...but every VW and Audi I have ever bought (that has this 4-link front suspension), the first thing I do is to remove, grease/anti-seize, and then reinstall the pinch bolt, to save me the inevitable hassle when the upper control arms eventually need replacing....
I learned my lesson with a 1999 A4...

[Tjtubbs]

Soo i ended up pulling the spindle out to get a machine shop to deal with it, figured id get the upper control arms off while it was out. Looked like i had cut enough of the punch off it cleared the groove in the control arm, so started cranking on it with the ball joint seperator. Just when i was thinking hmm that seems pretty tight, bang, the spindle broke in half. Maybe a mm of the punch caught the groove of the ball joint and forced it sideways when i was pressing it up. Luckily i found another for cheap at a wrecker, which also still had the pinch bolt in lol but was lucky enough to draw it out with the threads and putting wrenches behind the nut to turn against. Just have to finish torquing the right side and shes done finally, 1 week later. Dealer quoted me 3300 to do all the control arms so still in well under that thank god

[maksym]

Yay! Thanks for the update, glad it worked out. Sort of, lol :)


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[MSq5]

Thanks for the update on the resolution. There’s a valuable lesson here for all of us from the school of hard knocks.