86 front suspension help

[Chuck R.]

A co-worker decided that he didn't like one of the trees on his street at 2:00AM and tried to cut it down with the passenger side of his 86, taking out the headlight assembly, hood, bumper assembly and last but not least, the upper control arm.

In a vain attempt to pull the upper control arm off, we removed all the plastic components (what was left of them anyway), all the usual loose parts, and finally the two nuts from the two control arm shaft bolts.

The kicker here is that I can't get the bolts to back out far enought to free up the control arm shaft. The shaft is tight up against the shock tower and I still have over a full 1-1/2" of bolt still protruding through the shaft so that I can't free it up. The end of "that" bolt is hard against the exhaust manifold.

I'm very sure that the frame is still straight and that it isn't tweaked, so what's the deal, am I holding my tounge on the wrong side of my mouth or what?

At this point, I believe that either pulling the motor mount bolt and jacking up the engine or removing the exhaust manifold is our only recourse.

Anyone out there ever have to deal with this beast?

Man, under the hood of this 86 makes my 68 engine compartment look like an empty football stadium

Thanks in advance for any input,

Chuck

[Chuck R.]

Re: Ok, heres the 86 suspension solution

Through trial and error (mostly error) the only way to remove the upper control arm shaft is to separate the control arm from the knuckle and then swing the entire assembly upward so that the bolts can angle up as well allowing the arm to slide off the bolts.

The front bolt has the ablility to be pushed back further making it easier to free up the front of the shaft first, allowing the front of the shaft to be swung up and over the shock tower then allowing the removal of the back half of the control arm shaft from the rearward bolt.

Once I figured it out, it was a fairly simple process to remove both the upper and lower control arms with the exception of the rear lower control arm bushing bolt that cannot be freely removed as it barely hits a brace running from the lower bellhousing to the frame just behind this bolt. A slight pry downward on the head while tapping it out resolves this issue as well.

Hope this helps the next shade tree suspension repair mechanic.

Chuck 32205