Doing lowering shackles and all was going well. Pass. done and started working on Driver side. Upper and lower nuts came right off. Went to remove lower shackle bolt and it just turns. Tried everything, even the BFH. Turns out the sleeve inside the bushing is seized to the bolt. The sleeve just turns inside the bushing with the bolt. Any way, I decided to cut the bolt at each end, inside the bucket. Outboard side went fine. Inboard side is a different story. Can't get to the bolt. Keep making contact with the inner sleeve of the bushing and that thing is tough. It won't cut. Went through 3 sawzall blades and barely put a nick in the sleeve. Not enough room to get in the with anything else. No room to get to the bolt head either. Now my leaf spring is only supported the top bolt and half of the lower. Any suggestions? Any one ever encounter this before?

 

Both of my shackles were rusted frozen to the bolts.

What I did was cut the shackle in half so I could get the leaf spring out of the way.

Then I cut the bolt on either side using a 5" cutoff wheel and sawzall. You need the high quality blades, crap ones wont do ****. And use cutting oil. Good luck.

 

I'd remove the leaf spring and use a air hammer to get the bolt out.

I had to do that on my old 06 sierra.

 

Yeah, I ran a got good blades but I cant get to the bolt on the inner side. The sleeve is flush up to the shackle and the sawzall blades don't even scratch the surface of what ever that sleeve is made of. I even tried heat. No good. But now with some of the rubber gone I can clearly see the sleeve spinning with the bolt. I can cut the shackle but I'm still gonna have to figure a way to get that bolt/sleeve out. I'll have to see if I have a 5" cutoff for my grinder.

 

Cutoff wheel will go through it like butter. I did this several yrs ago. Rust is a bitch

 

try some heat from a torch first with a impact to try back bolt out

 

Nah, don't think heat and impact would have helped. I got a cutoff wheel in there and got it out. The sleeve is actually fused to the bolt inside the rubber bushing. Problem is, now the damn top side is the same way. Only difference is I need that spring eye bushing that's in the leaf. Cutting the one in the shackle was no problem because the new shackle comes with a new bushing......FML now what? Bout ready to throw in the towel and have it towed somewhere. Been at it all weekend and called out of work today. Both keys up front and the pass. side shackle went smooth as butter. Sheeeze!

 

Oh well, it's in the shops hands now. I did everything I could aside from lifting the bed and couldn't get that top shackle/spring eye bolt to free up. Yeah, i could have cut it like I did with the lower but then I'd need a new spring eye bushing. Can't afford another day out of work so I'll just let them handle it. Just sucks that everything else went so smooth until I got down to the last shackle.