Thread: GRRRRR ARRRGGHHH --venting

So i set out to swap the front swaybar in my GS tonight. 2 hours in and the old one isnt even out yet

the whole car is fightin me. So i get the car up on jackstands, grab my electric impact to remove the lug nuts, like i always have done. Start on the passenger side. Remove lug nuts, wheel. remove end link (fight with this a bit as i end up twisting the bolt in two). Fight clearance for the midpoint bushing bolts with my gear wrench and a socket wrench. OK not so bad.
drivers side... only one lug nut comes off... the rest wont budge...(realized that i wasnt the last person to put them on, so someone overtorqued them...grrr) So, i spend 10 minues searching for my 2 foot 3/4" pipe for more leverage. Found it. Oh oops. i jacked up the car before i broke the nuts loose. lower car. proceed to use pipe on socket wrench. SNAP twisted the 3/8 socket nub right of the wrench. (coulnt get my breaker bar inside the pipe at that point) soooo, i had to dremel out the inside of the pipe a bit to fit the breaker bar handle. proceed to remove rest of lug nuts (STILL STINKIN TIGHT W/ 2 FOOT BAR!)
So on this side, i'm down my only 3/8 socket wrench. 1/2 inch wrench breaker bar, or box end/open end gear wrench only. fight a bit more with the end link bolt on this side, snap in two, remove. OK. Have to work really hard with the box end gear wrench to break loose the midpoint bushing bolts... 1/2 inch wrench too big to fit. So i finally get that all removed, (i have NOT tried to remove any part of the midpoint bushings, they dont seem to want to budge) So i realize that i am going to have to remove the tierod ends from the spindles. i can only get one side loose. the other side wont budge, and it's too late to go get the fork tool. Soooo the car is still up on jack stands... GRRRR i hate having not finish it all at once. will have to get the tool tomorrow. hopefully then it will come out.
though i suppose i may have to see if i can at least get the bolt on brackets for the midpoint bushings off. would make it easier to remove.


oh .... i almost forgot... somewhere in the process of all of this. i manage to spill my 100 piece socket set on the garage floor... all of it.... yaaay.


wow that was long winded, but i needed to vent


now to crash.

I hear ya dude, I had an exhaust clamp break a while back, and what should have been a 45 minute job last night, ended up being 4 hours. Under the car, under the hood, back under the car...oops...forgot my wrench, back out from under the car back TO under the car....but yeah, it's fixed now.

yeah it was a bit frustrating, but hopefully i can get it out... suppose it depends on weather or not i can manage to get the midpoint bushing brackets off. (i doubt the bushing itself will come off, it's been on there for 8 plus years....

absolute worst case scenario is bolt the midpoint bushings back down and carefully get it to shop that can get it up on the hoist and change it... but dont want to do that if i dont have to.

well it took a whole bunch longer that it probably should have, but it's done!

got the tierod seperator tool from autozone, and free'd the drivers side tierod end.
put one bolt back in each side of the midpoint bushings, and pried with a big screwdriver to remove the brackets, the bushings came right out... almost in two pieces... rust apparently isnt nice to rubber either. had to jack up the car a bit higher to get the old sway bar out ( i think it was somewhat easier to remove with one side a bit shorter than it shoud have been )

so, on to the new bar. had to raise the car up more still for more room. got it most of theway in, but rubbing a bit on the opposide side cradle rail.... a few whacks of the BFH, and voila! it's in. So i rub some grease on the inside of the midpoint brackets to ease installation, and start both bolts on the drivers side. one goes easy, the other gets hung up.... remove it, try again, nope still not there. must have rust or junk in the threads from the loose rust of the old brackets. so i have to run out and find a tap to fit, as i have no metric taps. stop at the lowes (whole metric tap die kit is $48), the HD (no love at all), and finally the sears hardware -- 14 piece kit for $35. oh well. so i get home, work the tap into the hole (tight squeeze against the lines on the drivers side firewall) so that one goes in fine. alright. put the bracket back on, start that bolt, go to the other one that was fine when i put it in the first time... now it gets hung up! soo, remove bracket (put the bolt back in the hole to keep it clean) and have to tap the other hole. (seems to take forever to get straight in) soo i get that tightened up. yay. the endlink was pretty uneventful, thankfully. reatach tierod end. reinstall wheel. yay. one side done. quite thankfully, the passenger side went back together without wierd incident. w00t!

soo i lost track of how many hours i fought with it, but it's done now. ---today had to be at least 2 hours, not counting the trip to the store. yikes.

though i guess the swaybar was due to be replaced. not only was the drivers end completey snapped in two, on the passenger side, one half of the eyelet wasnt attached to the bar anymore either. ~youd think it could last more than 9 years and 185K miles... sheesh~ :P

Originally Posted by 02BlueGT

Yeah, I though I was bad when I fought the new sway bar for 3 hours before I realized the tie-rod needed to come off.... what a struggle, at least your won

how in the world did you get the old one out with the tierods attached????

haha, i forgot the last kick in the pants from this whole ordeal. I wanted to check/fill the tires after i put em back on, so i plug in the compressor, and while im checkin air pressure, i hear a loud PSSSSSSSSSTTTTTT noise. what the? the crimp on my recoil fill hose let go, separating hose from fittting. -- ok i'll run and fill it up at the gas station. get to station... sorry, broken!. in the rain, no less.

so today i had to go get another hose. filled it up. sheesh!

I get the car up on jackstands, take both wheels off and then loosen the rear cradle bolts up....boom...15 minute job and you don't even have to take the tie rods off.