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Hi all,

Ok,its time to put your collective grey matter together to come up with the answers again.

My car is going to be off the road for approximately 4 weeks to carry out some work.
The first job is to replace the front leaf springs, shackle bolts and leaf spring clamps.

I made a half-hearted attempt to gently hammer out the shackle bolts to no avail. I have been applying WD-40 for a number of weeks now to try and release them. The bolts are quite worn and probably have a 'step' worn into them, which does not help matters. Unless I am missing something (like a retaining pin), they are well and truly stuck!

I have had suggestions from heating the shackles to freezing them to cutting the heads off (flat side) and hammering them out from that side.

Please reply with any suggestions you may have for removing them, thank you.

You can normally push them out with your fingers with the car jacked up enough to relieve the spring pressure, perhaps your Bijur oiler hasn't been functional so they get no lubrication? If not, the bushings in the springs are probably shot as well, it's VERY important to have the Bijur chassis oiler functional. If you're not getting oil drops on your garage floor, the oiler needs service, usually a rebuilt vacuum diaphram on the pump. There are all together 4 or 6 different configuration shackle bolts used, differences being in the positioning of the internal oil passages, for example to permit oil from the upper to get to the lower bolt, etc. so don't mix them up when you get them out. New ones are available from Bruce Blevins who manufactures them. there are no hidden retainers on the bolts.

One consequence of frozen shackles can be broken spring main leaves so check them out. Of course the springs should be wrapped in burlap, greased, and then covered with steel spring covers which retains the lubricant and keeps abrasive road dirt and dust out.

Been there a few times with the job you're getting into. Keep me in mind if you have other questions.

I just finished pulling all of them out of a 33. These were frozen. I used liberal amounts of PB Blaster which turned lose two of them. The others, I had to use lots of heat and liberal use of a big hammer. One on the rear I had to use a Port-a-power to apply pressure while rotating the spring and applying lots of heat.
Good luck. It took two of us two days to get this done.

Thanks for the info, while your all tucked up in bed tonight I will be up to my ears in shackles, will let you know tomorrow.

Please keep all suggestions coming!

Pat.

BTW, the Bijur chassis diagram for your specific car is on this website a part of the Bijur maintenance and repair manual.

I'm beginning to wonder if people who own and drive Bijur-equipped cars understand how important it is to have it functional. Would you run your motor without oil?

I agree with the advice of using lots of PB blaster, heat, and a 4 lb mallet. You can protect the end of the pin with a chunk of aluminum as you are pounding; though you will likely be replacing the bins and bushings.

I also agree with Dave on the importance of the Bijur system. It is an easy thing to overlook for folks that are not used them. If the car has not been used for a long time, it is important to make sure the system is working before driving the car. With my 30, this was not done and I have had a lot of work to do to fix the subsequent problems.

It is a great system that normally just works. But like all things mechanical, it does not do well if left unused for extended periods of time.

Tom

Heat from a oxy-acy torch? How hot? Lots of paintwork around the top bolts!

Yes, I have new bolts so no problem there.

What about grinding the flatheads off the bolts and hitting them from that side. That is, swinging a mallet from the outside towards the crank hole cover, to help prevent damage?

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Pat,

Don't know how similar the '30 and '34 shackles are but Tom has a blog of his work on his '30 including the shackle removal which may assist.http://www.packardpaddock.com/Packard_Paddock/Welcome.html

You mentioned you tried WD-40, try PB-Blaster as others have suggested, it works way better than WD-40 IMHO. WD-40 works great to lubricate a squeeky door henge, but as far as a penetrator, I have found nothing better than PB-Blaster. Also it works great to soften rubber parts that have hardened.

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I've never seen PB-Blaster here in Australia and it may not be available in Ireland.