Rear axle bushing bolt

[rjsummer]

Doing the axle bushings on my 03 Jetta, can anyone tell me... Is there a way to remove the right side bolt WITHOUT disturbing the body mount bracket??? Id rather not disturb the alignment on the back, but the gas tank is in the way of the bolt. It only comes half way out. It tried angle the beam every which way. Can't remove bolt unless I loosen and drop that bracket. Any ideas?*

[rjsummer]

Really???? With all the write ups and people doing the rear axle and no one has an answer? Is everyone dropping the axle bracket, or are my bolts in backwards from the factory???? Funny, the Bentley electronic manual seems to show the nut on the inside...

[rjsummer]

Ok, looks like I'm talking to myself in this thread, but after writing the last bit, I thought I'd go out in the driveway and check the other 4 VW's in the driveway. Yup, as I feared, the bolts are all on from the outside, nuts on the inside. So.... seems the VW factory put em in backwards, and it wasnt noticed because it was assembled with beam before the fuel tank I expect. I've seen a post or two on a few forums complaining of my problem, so it seems a few were put in backwards. Drop fuel tank or bracket if the factory did it backwards, correct on re-assembly. Problem solved.
I wish someone had simply replied with " dont know what youre talking about, my bolts are in from the outside..."

[Seatman]

Haven't even looked at mine, why not buy a new bolt and just chop that one out? Is that possible?

[rjsummer]

Ya, that's what I ended up doing. Just pulled the bolt out until it hits the fuel tank, and cut it off. 5 min. Dealer had new bolt in stock for $6. Its all back together now and feels like new.

[Seatman]

Cool, handy to know incase I run into that one because I dare say my bushes will need replaced at some point.

Sorry you didn't get answered sooner, it just depends who's about and what they know or can suggest. I'll usually swerve if it's something I have no helpful ideas on

[j.c.weinert]

hi yall, I know that some where in this forum somebody has posted these pics but just in case IM the only one that has terrible luck with things getting frozen in time and place I wanted to post some pics up as well. I had the upgraded all rubber ones-ie-not the oil filled version but even with the solid rubber they had fallen apart. So I went with ECS tuning (hopefully good product) anyhow so I had to cut the old outer metal band of the rubber bushing. The rubber fell out (separated from the steel housing) but the steel housing was fused to the rear axle hinge point. So I orignially started out with a hack saw ( and then I decided (because it was the middle of the night and my saw blade was old and dull to try out my sawzall which work amazingly see pics. Once I got a slit cut deep enough I took a chisel and hammered it up so as to separate it from the axle housing. once I hammered away enough it simply fell out. again see pics for clarification. and good luck to anyone who does this.

P.s. Im having a hard time getting the pics to load I will try again later

[j.c.weinert]

hopefully these pics will now load