DillonLee

Ok first of all I have been searching around for roughly an hour and a half trying to find the answer to my question and nothing has come up. I have started my first suspension lift ever on my '83. I am pretty new to this and I have never done anything like this before. I have everything unbolted connecting to the axle and the axle is dropped from the leaves. It was going prettty well but now im stuck. I went to remove the pin holding the leaf spring to the front hanger and the pin holding the spring to the shackle and for some reason I cannot seem to get them out. I have tried almost everything I could thing of and I don't know what to do next, any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated. I looked in my Haynes manual and I didn't find any answers in there either.

algranger

do you have a torch?

Plumbrbob

soak em up with PB blaster let em set for bit them get out the hammer. From what I remember i think the shackle is one piece so hitting it in between the bolts worked for me I used a long metal pipe to get in there. If you are using the original shackle you may be able to just beat off the spring. The front bolt I remember wanted to bind up when it was half way out I remember shoving somthing about the same size but a little smaller in the hole and pounding it out I beat every thing with my dead blow. also think I may have used a pry bar to take the tension of the spring. Its been a while hope this helps a bit

algranger

yeah i took mine off the truck but not the springs. i figured out if you heat the bolt for a bit with a torch they just slide right out but before that i just did a lot of hammering on the shackle itself

Plumbrbob

Now That I think about it I think those babies got seroiusly damaged but I did not care since it was all going to the garbage. It didnt take much just a couple good swaps, I like the heating em up better (soften the rubber) if your needing to reuse em.

Al's Chop Shop

i would not torch them if you are planning on reusing the springs. it will destroy the temper of the springs and cause a failing point. the same reason you do not drill leaf spring center pin holes with a high speed drill.

PB Blaster, and a smaller bolt do drive them out.

Al

nico

If the hammer you're using isn't doing the job, get a bigger hammer.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

The problem is that the spring pin rusts inside the rubber spring eye bushing and that rust and rubber bond to form a huge lump of rubber/iron oxide in the center of the bushings. The idea is to heat up the end of the bolt to try and get the rubber glob to loosen up. That and some liberal application of a good penetrating oil up inside the spring eye bushing to help soften the rubber and lubricate the bolt can help. Also, I find that using a pry bar under the flange on that spring pin to pry it out and put pressure on the bushing while turning the bolt can help ease it out. Problem with hammering is that you are essentially hamming the bolt into the rubber bushing and it absorbs the hammer force and nothing moves. You need a steady force.

snailwagon

You can also take a steering wheel puller to force it out. It worked well for me on 30+ year old cruisers. But the BFH is pretty tempting.