Front sway bar link won't come out, need help quick!

[Buurin]

I need help quick because I only have tomorrow to work on my car and things I can turn up in a search, I have already tried.

My car clunks over bump and the sway bar link is loose.It was clunking and I'm doing an oil change/tire changeover/2yr service all at once. Passenger side was torqued up no problem, driver side is now frozen and permanently loose, and the hex key hole on both ends have stripped. Can't trust that link anymore so I bought a replacement - crappy tire made by Moog, C$54. Now I just need to get the old out.

I tried liquid wrench, propane torch, visegrips on the backside (it just spins). I have thought about drilling out the stud through the allen key hole, bore it thin enough so I can just wrench and snap the nut off, or cutting off the nut's flange and put a nut splitter on it, but I don't have the nut splitter - have to buy one.

Before I retire for the day I dropped some more liquid wrench on it.

What's my best plan?

[kasperjames]

wow beats me. but good luck!!! hope someone here can help you. i wanna know what you do when you get help. just in case i get into a pinch like this.

[Bennie]

1. Torch the crap out of it (red hot) and vise the back.
2. Use a cutoff wheel on an angle grinder or cutoff tool and just cut it off.
3. Don't worry about it until you have more time to deal with it. It's the end link, if it was missing all together you could totally drive the car amyways.

I have a cutoff wheel on one of my 4.5" angle grinders and if the links look rusted I don't even bother with anything but the grinder.

[Buurin]

Thanks for the tips. It's off. Only took me 2.5 hours.

The winning move - drill out the stud from the allen key hole with a right angle drill. Top nut I just knocked it off, the bottom nut I was able to unscrew after visegripping the back and weakened the stud enough via the drillout.

I'll have a "corpse shot" up soon.

The drill is $35 on sale, bought just for this occasion.

[dimwittedmoose51]

IIRC, I used a SawzAll to cut my rear links off a couple years ago. Glad you got the buggers off finally. Remember to anti-seize the crap out of the new links up front so you or the next owner/mechanic doesn't have to deal with the same issues you're hassling with.

BTW, I'll be dealiing with front end links today, but mine don't look as bad as the rears and the allen holes look pretty clean. I've also found that taking a Dremel tool with the mini wire wheel attachment to the exposed threads before using PB Blaster for thread loosening sometimes cuts to the chase a bit quicker.

YMMV

DM&FS