Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

I'm trying to change the sway bar linkage and the nut holding it on is REALLY well seized up. I've tried liquid wrench, a breaker bar, a grinder, a dremel, and a nut splitter... nothing is effing working. (can;t get it to turn at all, can't get into the little recess well enough with a grinder, can't get all the way through with the dremel, nut splitter can only get on one side and is slipping anyway.


Any magic secrets?

I hung a wrench off it and then kicked the wrench with my steel toed boots. That worked well!

Haha... I tried beating the shit out of a long handled breaker bar with a 3 pound hammer... nothing.

In that case I would drill it out. Just use a bit that's about the same size as the bolt and the thing should fall to bits.

foxycanuck wrote:Any magic secrets?

Yes

I was only able to remove them with an air gun and impact socket. The force and vibration is more than you can exert with a manual hand tool.

both 1&2 worked on different occasions (3 only once) although bystanders should cover their ears to shield profanities being expelled

1. really strong lock-jaw vice grips on the shaft and use an air gun to crack the nut

2. file down the shaft on two sides and use a clamp of vice grips and use an air gun to crack the nut

3. if yours has an allen key socket, put it in and use a wrench with a pipe to crack the nut

I'm having trouble getting any power tools in there, so the drill and impact aren't playing along right now.

I'm wondering if a dremel multimax could cut it off at the nut, then try and get a few good hits with a BFH, or if the nuts/bolt are too hardened for one of those guys to work.

which one are you having a problem with ? lower or upper ? as you turn the nut is it spinning inside the sleeve?

Both are very stuck... the nut won't turn at all. The ball joint moves freely, so there will be that issue when I get to the point I can turn the nut, but they are both seized to the brackets. I cut the lower one off at the ball joint and tried to pound it out, but to no avail.

Rent a torch and burn the sucker out.
Andy

or if all else fails, go to a shop that has a plasma cutter. zip zip. done.

Yeah, I'm on the verge of limping it to the local shop... I'm not quite ready to admit defeat yet though. Gonna try a torch tonight. Might just try a sharp cold chisel and try to cut between the nut and the frame.

foxycanuck wrote:I'm having trouble getting any power tools in there, so the drill and impact aren't playing along right now.

I'm wondering if a dremel multimax could cut it off at the nut, then try and get a few good hits with a BFH, or if the nuts/bolt are too hardened for one of those guys to work.

One of the nut/bolts holding my bashplate on got mangled my last offroading excursion, and it sheared off the mating sleeve holding it inside the body. So it just span around loosely when I tried to take it off.

I ended up gripping the head of the bolt with vice grips in one hand and holding it to one side while I got my handy Dremel with a little carbide wheel in the other.

Lotsa fun while lying on my back under the van, but it only took a few minutes to zip thru the neck of the bolt. Those things work great. Midland tools or Princess auto has mini cutting wheels sets for a coupla bucks.