How To: Remove End Links, The definitive how-to... Options

[ConeTrouble]

That is all.

[zipstrips]

[DustyBurns30]

that is one fancy hacksaw.

[Andason]

[ConeTrouble]

Okay, I was just funnin'

While I did end up cutting one of them off, i have replaced all of them on my car, now, and I have come up with a pretty good method for removal.

Tools you are going to need:

7mm Allen wrench
14mm Box-end wrench
Claw Hammer
Large pair of Vice-Grips
Some kind of penetrant (Liquid Wrench, PB Blaster, etc.)

First thing to do is spray the whole joint with penetrant and let it sit for an hour or so. Overnight would probably be best if you are worried about this.

Use the box-end wrench to break the nut loose. You aren't too worried about whether or not the inner part spins (it might), but you are wanting to break the rust-weld between the nut and the sway bar/strut housing. A couple half-turns should do. Remove the wrench.

Now, take your Allen wrench insert the short part of the 'L' into the end-link. If yours was as rusted as mine was, you won't be able to get it in too far.

Take the hammer and tap the Allen wrench in real good. I mean make darn sure it is in there. Put it this way, when I finally got the nut off, I had to use the ViceGrips and the hammer to get the wrench out of the bolt. That hard.

Slip the box-end wrench over the Allen and position it so you can loosen the nut. Now take the ViceGrips and clamp them down hard on the bend in the Allen Wrench, I angled it so that the tip of the jaws wre at the 'L' and the base of the jaws were farther up on the long end of the 'L'.

Okay, the Allen thing is the weak link in the chain, so to speak, so I made an effort not to try and turn the blot with the ViceGrip/Allen wrench combo. I only used that contrapion to make sure the bolt didn't spin. All the turning was done with the box-end wrench.

Take your time. If you feel the Allen wrech coming out, don't hesitate to remove the Grips and use the hammer again. Make sure that thing is in there good. This method worked well for me, though it took a little bit of time.

Things to have handy if something goes wrong. One spare end-link for each end of the car (unless you are in there to replace the b@stards, and then you have them all anyway, sooo. Also, you want to have new nuts. These are cheap from Toyota. Part # is : 90179-10183 ($.71 each... I replaced all 8). When replaceing, I used some anti-sieze on the threads. Hopefully that will prevent the disaster the next time around.

A side note: I posted an image of a hacksaw. Something that large would actually be a bit difficult to weild in the tight confines of the fenderwell. What I used to cut the one I screwed up on was called a Junior Hacksaw. Looks like this:



It uses different blades than a regular hacksaw, but I found it to work better than even one of those half-hacksaws that you insert a regular hacksaw blade into and screw down. I kept bending the end of those. Just too floppy for this application. You should be able to get a junior hacksaw at a Lowe's or HoneDepot or Ace.

Good Luck. Take it slow. They will come off (one way or the other )