It is slowly being assimilated
This is all that's left of the tie rod bolt
Obviously the pinch bolt wouldn't just come out, so the first trick to try before drilling it is to jack it out using the threads at the nut end. I've already snapped the head off at this point, and I have a stack of greased washers under the nut. When all goes to plan, tightening the nut pulls the bolt out. Note the half washer jammed in the split where the balljoint pin goes - there is one at the other end too. These are essential to support the clamping section of the upright. Without this support, tightening the nut will simply crack the aluminium. Yes, I learned that the hard way when I forgot the washer once
You can just see the end of the bolt as it disappears in to the hole
This is after the first round - its pulled about 2cm out so far.
Tightening round 2 - now I'm running out of room. This technique can pull the whole bolt out cleanly in the A4 and A6, but for some reason the 8 has slightly different geometry on the steering arm so there's no straight shot to this end of the bolt.
I cut 1cm of thread off the end so there is enough for one final round of tightening the nut. At this point I cut through the bolt leaving a couple of cm proud of the upright and then wiggle it with mole grips, with some encouragement from a drift in the other end of the bolt hole. Its important not to punch it out as there is still a chance of breaking the upright.
The remains of the bolt
One upright ready to go back on. This was ~4 hours of work...
Cleaned up the hub so the wheel runs true
and cleaned up the holes for the control arms
