Idler Arm Removal - Am I missing something??

[rich_mc]

In process of disassembly of the front suspension for a rebuild on my 76 Scamp w/ 225... I've got everything off the passenger side except the idler arm. The bolt won't go up high enough to let the idler arm out before hitting the engine...

Am I missing something obvious? At this point, it seems like my choices are:
1. To loosen the motor mount bolts and jack it up high enough to get the bolt free (seems ridiculous and not desirable)
2. Cut off the bottom end of the bolt so it gets short enough to remove, and then insert my new bolt from the bottom (seems like a bad idea because if the nut came loose and gravity)

Ideas?

 

[Jim Lusk]

Jack up the engine. Lots of jobs need other things removed first. You may also have sagging motor mounts causing the interference.

 

[rich_mc]

Jack up the engine. Lots of jobs need other things removed first. You may also have sagging motor mounts causing the interference.

Ugh...OK... I guess I will but will wait on that until I get the driver side done to make sure I only have to do it once...

Thanks!

 

[Murray]

Installed wrong- the bolt installs from the bottoms.

 

[RustyRatRod]

What's so difficult about removing ONE fastener and jacking the engine up? If you think that's "ridiculous", you may as well sell the car now. I mean seriously, in the time it took you to sign into the forum and complain about it, you could have had the bolt out.

And yes, the bolt does install from the bottom as @Murray mentioned. That way there's plenty of room on top for the nut and the bolt will fall out from the bottom the next time.

 

[rich_mc]

Got it- Thanks all!

 

[Heywodja]

What's so difficult about removing ONE fastener and jacking the engine up? If you think that's "ridiculous", you may as well sell the car now. I mean seriously, in the time it took you to sign into the forum and complain about it, you could have had the bolt out.

And yes, the bolt does install from the bottom as @Murray mentioned. That way there's plenty of room on top for the nut and the bolt will fall out from the bottom the next time.

Some folks just don’t know these things
Lighten up Francis…

 

[barracudadave67]

If you have some air tools you could cut it off with a cut off tool, if you dont have to reuse the bolt.
Dave

 

[mvh]

If you had a 67, your problem would be that you can't get a wrench on the nut. Same solution — jack up the engine. The slant mounts are relatively easy to deal with, at least.

 

[rich_mc]

Thanks everyone. Got it sorted. Since the bolt is supposed to go in from the bottom anyway, I took the grinder and cut the head off so the old one dropped out the bottom.

All the old suspension and brake components are now off. Time to clean up for the day and then start putting the new stuff on nights this week, starting with rebuilding the LCA's.