Freelander 1 wishbone rear mounting problems!

evening all, now when i say problems, i mean problems!
had to replace with wishbones on my 2004 td4, had a knocking from the front passenger side and the wishbones were pretty corroded both sides.
came to do the job and its been an absolute nightmare.
nuts/bolts wizzed off on the near side UNTILL i got to the rear bush housing.
the single nut came off easily but the wishbone was seized solid into the rubber bush.
i ended up cutting the front section of wishbone off hoping to then be able to "persuad" the back piece out with the hammer. didnt work!
so, decided that the housing had to come off and this is where the fun really started. the 2 housing bolts would not budge, they were seized solid in the housing.
i tried everything. big bars, impact wrench but nothing would budge them.
started the grind off which bits of the housing i could to release the bolts, gradually chipping away at the ally,
eventually one of the bolts was exposed enough to hopefully undo. popped the impact wrench on it and yeyyy it spun BUT didnt undo!
soooo, im guessing ive either got snapped bolts, stripped treads or the captive nuts not captive any more.
anyone experienced this problem?
not really sure how to proceed, im guessing i gotta keep grinding till the whole mount is off and then figure out whats going on with the bolts.
so much for it being a straight forward job
does anyone know how id access the "captive" nuts? is it a case of going through the passenger footwell? or cutting into the chassis?
i cannot believe 2 bolts could cause such problems! and ive not even started the other side yet.
cheers

Wow. I thought mine was rusty but the rear wishbone bolts to chassis rail came out easily. Not sure how the threads are fixed into the chassis. The rear subframe is screwed into captive nuts so the front may be the same. Sounds like you'll need to hole punch the floor above said bolt and either replace and reweld nut. May be worth accessing the other side and soaking with pentrating oil? Maybe you were unlucky and the thread had been damaged?

fraggz said:

evening all, now when i say problems, i mean problems!
had to replace with wishbones on my 2004 td4, had a knocking from the front passenger side and the wishbones were pretty corroded both sides.
came to do the job and its been an absolute nightmare.
nuts/bolts wizzed off on the near side UNTILL i got to the rear bush housing.
the single nut came off easily but the wishbone was seized solid into the rubber bush.
i ended up cutting the front section of wishbone off hoping to then be able to "persuad" the back piece out with the hammer. didnt work!
so, decided that the housing had to come off and this is where the fun really started. the 2 housing bolts would not budge, they were seized solid in the housing.
i tried everything. big bars, impact wrench but nothing would budge them.
started the grind off which bits of the housing i could to release the bolts, gradually chipping away at the ally,
eventually one of the bolts was exposed enough to hopefully undo. popped the impact wrench on it and yeyyy it spun BUT didnt undo!
soooo, im guessing ive either got snapped bolts, stripped treads or the captive nuts not captive any more.
anyone experienced this problem?
not really sure how to proceed, im guessing i gotta keep grinding till the whole mount is off and then figure out whats going on with the bolts.
so much for it being a straight forward job
does anyone know how id access the "captive" nuts? is it a case of going through the passenger footwell? or cutting into the chassis?
i cannot believe 2 bolts could cause such problems! and ive not even started the other side yet.
cheers

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The bolts are fine threaded "patch" bolts, and can seize in the captive nut. It's best to apply loads of release fluid to the back of the bolts, via the holes in the chassis torque box. The trick is to work them in and out until they're right out.
As the captive nut is now spinning, you have no alternative but to cut it out for replacement. I'm guessing the best way in is through the foot well, but it's not something I've needed to do so far.

Evening all. Just thought id fill u in on the wishbone saga.
Been chipping away at it a little at a time for the past 2 weeks and finally managed to get the mount off! Its taken lots of grinding, cutting and welding to get the damn thing off.
Th2 captive nuts were just spinning l, so had to cut through the floor and weld them back down again. Even then the bolts were still fused in the mount, so i literally had to cut it into little pieces to get it off.
Unfortunately, ive still got the other wishbone to do!!
A new vs old picture.....

i have never seen one that bad before you put everything away soak the other side in penetrating oil and when you come to do it a little bit of heat on the studs first.

Bolt threads don't look bad !! Doesn't take much to rip the nut off the chassis then !

Glad I didn't know that when I did mine - 6 sided socket and a large grunting bar - then impact driver ! I got away with it.

i did get penetrating oil onto the nuts while trying to remove them, unfortunately that meant cutting 2 holes in the footwell to get to the nuts. and even with the nuts welded back in place, the bolts were still "welded" inside the housing and i literally had to cut the bolts free before they'd come out, absolutely crazy.
im dreading the other side. hopefully the impact wrench will do the trick.
i had already bought new bolts with the new housings, so i wasnt too worried about damaging them, the heads are a little knackered but yeah the threads are clean.

talk about 1 step forward 4 steps back! got all the new parts fitted, everything went together easily, dropped the car down off the stands, nipped up the wheel nuts and "SNAP" one of the studs snapped!
can anyone clarify, i gotta take the hub off to replace it?
im pretty certain i do and that means a new wheel bearing.
its almost laughable!!!

Will it punch out? If there is enough clearance for a new on you could pull it in with a puller or G cramp maybe. Put socket over the threaded end. Not sure if there is enough room though.

And the answer to my question is... No there is not enough room to drive the stud out without taking hub off and splitting bearing. Just looked on a spare. Sorry....