When I replaced my entire control arm set in front, I tried to take the bolt out normally, the head broke off and the shaft remained. Tried to hammer it out with a ***** punch. Ended up heating it up with a blowtorch for like 3 minutes till it was red as hell and then I hit it out with the punch and hammer.

The beauty of expansion. And contraction.

Almost like a woman, ay?

 

Call me crazy but I bought tungsten alloy pinch bolts. The guy told me they have steel bits in them to increase overall toughness. From what I know, Tungsten has the highest tensile strength, highest density and highest melting point. I may be wrong. One bolt cost me $43 dollars but I wanted to see if the material was up to par.

I have removed the bolt 6 times so far in 18 months for various reasons and believe it or not, without any anti seize, ZERO corrosion. The bolt is dead straight.

Stainless steel bolts would definitely do the jobs but if you are nuts and curious, buy these pinch bolts and forever hold your peace.

 

tungsten? seems like overkill, but i like overkill. too bad the price is overkill too

i can report that the stainless bolts have some corrosion, but nothing that would make them stick. however, they too are straight as an arrow, unlike the stock bolts i've pulled out. i stand by the stainless recommendation. same say they dont have shatter resistance, but its a damn pinch bolt. it aint gonna shatter

 

Another winter with excess snow, meaning excess road salt and corrosion, yielded another satisfactory performance of the stainless bolts. I removed both for suspension inspection last week and both popped out with a light tap of the hammer. This is looking like a long term solution, however I did remove them last July (as noted above) for control arm installation.

 

I removed my passenger side bolt while attempting to swap out axle (second time axle was not for AWD as advertised) and all I did was hose it w/ WD-40. It came right out with some taps of a mallet. I know I am one of the lucky ones.