george09

Got it sorted in the end. Just wound the nut very slowly, an easy solution. I just initially panicked because I thought I had painstakenly installed faulty new TREs. Anyway, thanks to all for the advice. It's been educational.

I managed to get a joint splitter and that did the trick -- just barely -- it was really stuck. I thought the joint splitter would break first. A new, frustrating complication though: After getting the new TRE on the other end and attempting to screw on the nylon nut, I've discovered that the TRE threaded bolt is moving with the nut and not allowing me to tighten it. This is my first TRE replacement and I'm wondering if I have a faulty though new TRE -- it's a Lemford. Is there a trick to get the bolt to stop spinning? For such a simple job, this has turned into a major pain in the a**.

Here's what I'm talking about (I swiped this image off the tech forum). The picture shows where I've been hitting it with my hammer. I've actually hit it all over, but it just won't pop off.

I'm trying to get the tie-bar that connects to the drop arm end joint separated from the joint and it ain't budging! I've hit it 7 ways to Tuesday with a hammer -- the rod seems to be stuck to the end joint threaded bolt. The last thing I want to do is damage the ball joint because I don't need the headache of changing the joint. All I want to do is change the TRE joint at the other side of the bar, and it would be much easier to do if I could get the bar off the drop arm end joint. Does anyone have any suggestions? Again, I really don't want to damage the drop arm end joint because I know it's a major hassle to change.