Lower Steering Column R&R - Techniques?

[a3inverter]

All,

Went out to my local salvage yard this morning to source a lower steering column (the universal joint) with more flexibility than the one on my car. Found several but was stymied by the lower bolt (the connection to the steering rack) as those things are really on there tight. I tried my impact gun and a really long set of extensions and a swivel but still, no dice. All the steering columns were locked, so it was luck of the draw in terms of positioning for best access. I've decided to just get a new one, but need to get the old one off and I expect it to be as much a PITA as those in the salvage yard. Also, it's just a dinky 10mm bolt (though an 8. so I do have some concerns about it snapping trying to get it out.

Anyone have any experience/techniques to extract that bolt?

Part of me just wants to hand this particular job off to one of my local garages and just let them use their imagination and impact tools to get it done.

Thanks!

[oragex]

The bolt is not the worst, the coupler will be stuck on the rack. I don't know if there's a trick to remove it easier. Some scrap yards have a team that will help you for a few $. As for locked steering columns, just undo first the butterfly bolt at the top of the coupler (torque it back carefully on your car at 22 ft.lb as this is a safety bolt that shears in case of an accident) - you can then also test the coupler before trying to remove it, see if it's a good one.

[a3inverter]

Excellent. More reasons to hand off this job. I figure if I supply all the blue box parts, maybe they hit me with an hour of labor.

The "team" at this yard wanted to charge me $100 for the used part which would be inclusive of labor. As I can get a new one from FCP for about $80, I'm going to go that route. The nightmare scenario would be the snapping of the lower bolt. Getting into that space with the appropriate tooling to get out the bolt seems impossible.