When I replaced mine, we ended up having to cut through the rounded end of the leaf, through the bushing, and finally through bolt with a grinder. That is a last ditch effort that will work if you need. My bolts were out enough where they had cleared the threads of the welded nut.

 

Do you remember about how much the bolt had come out and cleared the threads by? mines a little bit more than a 1/4 of and inch out. I'm wondering if its just stuck in the sleeve. I went out and got a 4 foot breaker and a air chisel and some more PB. Im hoping if i can give it a few SHORT bursts with the blunt tip on the chisel then heat it up a bit and grab the sleeve i can take it off.

 

Well after a good 45 mins of working at it until the thunder storms came in I have nothing to show for it, The bolt is still stuck in the sleeve. I tried heating it for a while both the bolt and the weld nut area also hit it with the impact and the air chisel and got nothing. There is not enough room to get vise grips in there to grasp the sleeve so i'm at a stand still. Any advise?

 

You need to torch the bushing and let it burn and melt....that will help exposing the sleeve.

 

I most likly already know the answer to this But would a propane torch work? i know oxyactelin (if i speeled that right ) would be my best bet but i don't have a torch setup of that type

 

It is probably stuck in the sleeve. If I were you I would just start cutting through the leaf, then you can use a blade to cut through the rubber of the bushing to expose the metal sleeve. Then you can just cut the sleeve-wrapped bolt in half and pull the two halves out. If the inside half is still threaded in a bit, just grab some vices and turn the rest out.

 

Get a bottle of MAPP gas. It burns hotter, works better/faster.

 

While you were working on this task last night so was I. Burning the busing away and holding it with vice-grips is the best way. One thing that I did after getting the nut off was take a piece of steel and put pressure on the exposed end of the bolt and turn the bolt with a wrench. This was the only way i was able to get it to come out of the sleeve a little. Once I got it to move a little I grabbed the bolt with vice grips and pulled on it until it came out. I think MAPP will work a lot better on melting that bushing away. Propane should work I would think, but will probably take longer.

 

I'm quoting this to echo his point - it's what I had to do. Well, we didn't use heat...

I'd been soaking everything in PB for two weeks before the job, so it might have helped.

Got a long breaker bar and started rocking the bolt back and forth, back and forth. Tighten, loosen, etc. Just keep doing that, working it in both directions. Then I'd spray more PB, hit it with the impact, and work it back and forth some more.

Eventually they came free.

 

Like the rest have mentioned, propane or mapp (local hardware store) will work, just need some patient.

Once is exposed and you have your vise gripped, loosen, PB, tighten, PB, loosen,PB, tighten, PB.....you know the rest.
Worst case, you can bend the bracket outward, that should give you some space for the vise grip.

 

Thanks guys, im gonna work at it some more and see what happens

 

How did ya turn out?

 

are you installing a full leaf or an aal, you can do the aal with shackle with the front part of the leaf still attached

 

Its a full leaf . But i got them off ended up doing the vice grip trick to one of them. The other i had to cut out and cut threw the floor into the frame rail to extract.

 

O and this was a huge PITA! lol Thanks for all the advice guys!