Search "rusted pinch bolt removal". Have fun ( not )!

edit : take a look @

 

So I am just confirming, were you able to remove the pinch bolt? In that picture it is still in place...

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The bolt stuck hard. Wish I could take the torch to it.

 

This is what I did to a completely SEIZED cold welded pinch bolt. Go get a 1/2 ryobi impact wrench. 99 bucks at the depot with a 4ah battery. 300 ft lbs of muscle. Literally as soon as I turned the trigger it twisted the bolt out of seizure. Next, simply alternate tighten and loosen on highest setting. Bolt was out in 2 min. Paid for itself right there. To get bolt out, you MUST use a torch and ice water, or drill it out. That is the only way that I have found that works if you live around any moisture. I dont have my b5.5 manual 30v anymore but I literally rebuilt the entire car so I have r and r the ENTIRE suspension and steering components. Let me know and i can send some helpful info.

 

Tortelious, that must have been the video I watched originally but I have tried every angle possible with this V6 and can’t get enough room.

 

Well I found the thread on the subject. Will try pressure with c-clamp setup and continue with my air chisel to try to free it up. This stuff makes me love VW’s more every day.

 

The first thing I would do is remove the tie rod end. That actually will let you twist the spindle even more than just turning the steering wheel. That might be enough.

Also, If you put a lot of heat into just the bolt you should be able to use the torch. The absolute worst case scenario is replacement of those upper arms.

Alternately you could compress the spring and undo one or both of the lower arms at the subframe to gain the angle you need.

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If I had a spring compressor I would go that route. Tomorrow I will pop tie rod end and try that. I remember a while ago PZ says he removes upper control arms but he doesn’t live where they dump tons of salt on road so probably comes apart easier. It’s within half inch of coming out, but I guess V6 uses up the space needed. Can’t wait for drivers side. Thank you for the advise.

 

Huh, veteran member Tom Parish just sold a pinch bolt removal tool a couple of weeks ago.

I concur, removing the tie-rod end gives more access to steering knuckle. But with that it doesn't stay in one place. Sometimes creates a bit of a challenge when the knuckle moves around on you.

This what I had to do to my wife's car back a few years ago. This was a last resort type of thing. I will say this though. As much as I struggled to get the pinch bolts out of her car, going to this extent ultimately was a much easier way to attack the problem.
I am very fortunate to have a whole machine shop at my disposal though.

 

When you put it all back together, make sure you use plenty of copper based anti-seize on the new pinch bolt.
I mean slather it on like you would barbecue sauce on a rack of ribs.

 

you have to get the bolt out as the upper control arm's ball joint ends are scalloped to prevent them from "popping out" if the pinching fails. And the stub ends that go in the strut are rock hard. Two ways I have done this,in the car....taken a thin cutoff wheel and cut the bolt in the compression "slot" at the nut end then used the nut to "pull/extract" the little length out, then used a metric drill the size of bolt 10mm I think ? to drill it out using the length of open hole that I got the end piece out of, as a drill "bushing" to drill the rest out, alternating between drilling and inserting a drift punch and whacking, you will not have to drill all the way thru. The other way was I cut off all but about half the nuts height off of bolt, put nut back on and used remaining part of nut as drill bushing, drill size being the tap drill size for the bolt. . As a sidebar to this the bolt that is in there does not appear to be original clamp bolt.

 

If you notice in APs post #9, second pic, it matters not if your cutoff wheel goes into the lower end of the control arm ball joint stud end a little to avoid hitting the rubber boot above slot as you are grinding/cutting it. they will not be effected from a safety and performance aspect. And if I remember correctly the original bolts have a head that look similar to a railroad spike, that fit in a recess in the strut tower to lock

 

Thank you both, if I wasn’t concerned with saving the upper control arms I would heat it so hot the bolt would fall out. All I have done so far besides using my air chisel with blunt end on spindle is I made a heat shield to protect ball joint boots and used small amount of heat so grease doesn’t get hot and kept spraying with oil which sometimes the heat will draw oil in and eventually free it up and makes awesome smoke show in my closed garage (no luck yet). I like the drill idea, surprised the bolt isn’t hardened. But assume it would need to be out of car to drill, not much room on bolt head end. Will head back out to garage in a bit and try again.

 

What are you using as a penetrant? I swear by Kroil now. Before that, PB Blaster was the magic stuff for me.

I think it's only a grade 8 bolt. It really is only there to hold the ball joint ends in by locking in the narrower midsection of the nubs. The pinching action is a secondary force as the torque spec is relatively low. It is a crush nut holding it tight. Same principle with the tie rod end.

As far as anti-seize, the copper version is only better for higher temperature applications. Otherwise, the standard silver stuff is fine. I use it just about everywhere that the standard VW bolt is not zinc coated, on the hubs behind the rotor, and large sections of metal to metal contact. Oddly enough, the Passat pinch bolts are black and not zinc coated, where most other bolts in the suspension are. A light coating is all that is needed, imo. You are creating a barrier on the exposed surfaces. Otherwise, you could attracting more dirt and contaminates. Although, old farm tractors with serviceable ball joints and other parts always work well 50 years later when they have had a heavy coating of oil and grease. Even if that coating is full of dirt

Just found this little article. It's a good guide. 6 Tips for Effective Use of Anti Seize

 

Corrosion definitely adds to the problem, but a lot of the resistance comes from the forces of the components acting on the bolt. The spring is pushing the steering knuckle down and outward, and the upper control arms are pulling upward, with their little scallop cutouts pulling on the bolt shank. If you jack up the control arm to relieve some tension from the spring, and whack down on the control arms, this may help the pinch bolt move easier.

 

Well VAGguy you would laugh at what Im using for penetrating oil, WD40 in spray bottle, have a couple half gallons from about 35 years ago still left. ( old school ) Where can I get this new hi-tech stuff? Have both silver and hi-temp never seize and I use it on everything I take apart with exception of fasteners that require locktite. ( work on Harleys, without locktite I would be leaving parts behind ) I will use my 4x4 and floor jack to relieve some spring tension when I go back out in garage and start again. Thank you, will update later, either car in flames or axles in.

 

If this is because you are putting in axles, you do not need to remove upper control arms, or free up strut tower. I just removed two OEM axles and took them to Raxles for future exchange. The car was a 2003, 2.8 ,4mo. ,had to remove cover/shield on passenger side ,but that was all. And the suspension has to be "hanging" just have to push CVs to inner most point with a little rotation, AP just did this I believe.

 

What cchief22 said. No need to remove any ball joints simply to remove the axles. Try it when you do the drivers side. Once you remove the six inner joint bolts, slide the inner joint slightly to the rear to clear the flange. Then turn the steering wheel all the way to the left and the axle will come right out.

I see now what PZ was talking about in shaft diameter difference between FWD and 4 motion.

I am a little disappointed to see my shaft is smaller than yours.

 

Kroil is somewhat hard to find locally, but PB blaster should be anywhere you can get WD40. Even Walmart, I think. I found some at home depot, too. Amazon has Kroil (AeroKroil is the spray version). It ain't cheap, but a little goes a long way.

 

Holy sh-t I think it’s moving. Tried tie rod removal and still not enough clearance.

 

One down.

 

Guess the bolt is just half the battle.

 

You got it moving, now punch it out from underneath!

 

Bingo

 

Cleaned out with 25/64, bolt 9.87 MM

 

Can’t wait for drivers side. Im back in this decade with PB blaster. Will retire my last half gallon of WD40

 

Forget who mentioned that bolts are like railroad spikes but thats true with tie rod end. Pinch clamp for ball joints regular bolts.