That damn upper control arm bolt!

Tigerman said:
The little tongue just bends back and slips right? Have you tried c-clamping it at the point where it wants to bend back to hold it in place?
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Yup. Tried that. It just slips out from under the c-clamp.

glwood said:
When that tab is at about the 7 or 8 o'clock position, can you hammer the end of the tab inward, to bend it more, and keep it from sliding up over the control arm? Can't really tell from the photo if there is enough tab to do that...

Or maybe use a pipe wrench to hold the end of the bolt.
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I tried that too! The angle where it hits the control arm is just enough that both the flag and the control arm bend a little, and then the flag can ride up on the control arm. I tried bending the flag, but there's still enough flex that it can spin.
 
I just did a Nitro that had same bolts. Never looked at my TJ but I just used a pry bar under the flag and popped it off the bolt. Then used a socket.


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juiced10 said:
I just did a Nitro that had same bolts. Never looked at my TJ but I just used a pry bar under the flag and popped it off the bolt. Then used a socket.
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Nice! That might be the second thing I try if drilling doesn't work.
 
i'd use a combination of c-clamp and vice grips.

c clamp the control arm so it would be in the way of the flag as it spins. don't actually use the clamp on the flag.

then take a pair of vice grips and laterally grip the flag so that when it spins, the vice grip will rotate around and be stopped by the c-clamp.

if you have an impact, use that on the other side. you may need someone to hold the vice grip as you hit it with the impact.
 
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In case anyone ever comes back to this thread and wonders how I dealt with the bolt, here's the story.

I came up with another approach that I thought I'd try first. I figured I could cut a notch in the control arm just at the point where the flag was riding up over it, and give the flag a hard edge to catch on.

So I got under the Jeep with Dremel ready, and with drill standing by to try @Rob5589's suggestion of drilling through both flag and control arm.

First thing I did was put a wrench on the nut, and the dang thing spun right off without any trouble!

In between attempts, it was driven on road, off road, got dirty, and got cleaned. Who knows what did it, but it was totally not stuck when I came back to it.
 
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Glad you ended up figuring it out. That thing can be a pain in the butt sometimes. I've never had it as bad as you did, but they were tricky for me to remove on both TJs!
 
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Rob5589 said:
Drill a hole through the flag and into the bushing as deep as your bit will go. Slide a long tipped steel punch as deep as it will go. Full disclosure, never done it but it seems like it would work :D
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Well I'm doing a lift and have my spring out so I have better access. I like this idea because I'm working by myself and can't really hold that flag and torque at the same time. I may try this tomorrow after work. If I do, I'll post my findings.
 
Wade Durbin said:
Well I'm doing a lift and have my spring out so I have better access. I like this idea because I'm working by myself and can't really hold that flag and torque at the same time. I may try this tomorrow after work. If I do, I'll post my findings.
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This worked like a wet dream! So easy and happy for once working on a Jeep. Fabulous idea. Although drilling the flag was tough for some reason so I drilled on the upper side straight through a small layer of metal housing and into rubber bushing making the flag hit the punch I pounded into the hole instead of the control arm.

Thanks for making that job God knows how much shorter and easier. I didn't have much luck getting vice grips on it. Impact took the nut right off in a hurry. (I've been spraying everything multiple times with kroil though.)

1548193640037729137964091871330.jpg
 
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Rob5589 said:
Drill a hole through the flag and into the bushing as deep as your bit will go. Slide a long tipped steel punch as deep as it will go. Full disclosure, never done it but it seems like it would work :D
Click to expand...

Fabulous idea and it is easy if you have your spring and sway bar link off! I did however drill above the flagged bolt head as it was too hard to drill for some reason. (Think it was bending back and not getting good pressure.)
 
I registered purely so I could comment on this.

I just got myself a project TJ with 110k miles on it, and obviously all original suspension, torque on the bolts, and untold amount of crap in all the threads. I fought with that bolt (also driver's side) for a long time before googling and finding this thread. I dunno why it was so hard to drill that flag, but once I made it through and into the control arm...dang it came out easy with a punch to hold it still. Passenger side came out no problem. The drilled flag is going on my trophy shelf along wit the top-of-shock nut that came out in several pieces.

Thanks!
 
kk7ds said:
I registered purely so I could comment on this.

I just got myself a project TJ with 110k miles on it, and obviously all original suspension, torque on the bolts, and untold amount of crap in all the threads. I fought with that bolt (also driver's side) for a long time before googling and finding this thread. I dunno why it was so hard to drill that flag, but once I made it through and into the control arm...dang it came out easy with a punch to hold it still. Passenger side came out no problem. The drilled flag is going on my trophy shelf along wit the top-of-shock nut that came out in several pieces.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Hey! That's great that you managed to get the bolt out!

And welcome! Stick around — there are some really good people here!
 
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I just went through this while replacing my control arms. In my case (for future searchers) I was able to get a pair of vice grips on the flag bolt while using my impact wrench on the hex side. Came right off.
 
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RobertJ said:
I just went through this while replacing my control arms. In my case (for future searchers) I was able to get a pair of vice grips on the flag bolt while using my impact wrench on the hex side. Came right off.
Click to expand...

Same story for me. Takes some fiddling to get the vicegrips on there just right but was able to grab it well enough to get it off.

There is no reason not to just use a typical hex nut there.
 
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