Sways bars and caps

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:03 pm

Well, upon climbing under my baby today to inspect things (I make it a point to do this often lol) I found that the previous owners partially rounded the diff filler plugs (must've been trying to check level as I was going to do) to the point where I was worried about giving it my own shot without some mega penetrant and an impact wrench, and they rounded the tranny plug just slightly. That frustrates me. Anyone know whereabouts I can get a 23mm gripper tool, like Craftsman advertises for stripped bolts? and hopefully one strong enough for an impact wrench? I think that impact is the key to loosening them, as I've seen impact wrenches pop off bolts that a 5 foot torque wrench couldn't remove.

2nd part!!
Also upon climbing under my baby, I noticed that my sway bar bushings are starting to fall apart, especially the end ones! Joy! For the central, rectangularish ones, I think I know where to get some Polyurethane bushings, as long as I could make an imperial measurement match up with a metric. The place I'm seeing sells them in these diameters (both greasable and standard) 3/4", 13/16", 7/8", 15/16", 1", 1-1/16", 1-1/8", and 1-1/4". They sell them in red and black. Apparently they also sell end links, but they don't appear as the end parts look on our swaybars. The producer is Energy Suspension and the seller is Jegs.
Anyone know the diameters of our swaybars? I tried measuring with a tape measure but it kind of didn't work so great (tried doing circumference divided by pi... tape measure didn't match up end to end so well so I dunno if I was supposed to get 15/16 or and inch, or if I was way off)

Gasoline Fumes · Post by **Gasoline Fumes** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:50 pm

The diameter of the sway bar is molded into the bushings on the body. I think it's 20mm, or maybe 21mm. You can also use wrenches to measure sway bars.

takza · Post by **takza** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 6:39 am

<a href='http://tercel4wd.com/invision/index.php ... &f=7&t=363' target='_blank'>http://tercel4wd.com/invision/index.php ... 7&t=363</a>

A lot of the diameter of the swaybar is PAINT...seems to be about a 1/16" coat of black paint.

My 230K front bushings were AOK.

Find a 6-point socket for those plugs...keep impact wrenches away from them????

If they are real poor...find some replacements?

Adelard of Bath · Post by **Adelard of Bath** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 11:01 am

If you need to, I've heard of people welding stuff onto rounded bolts, if you can get to them well enough, you could weld a bar on there or something, then once it is lose, grind it off? That's a last measure though.

I recently bought a rounded bolt tool at my tractor place ( "Fleet Farm" but I think it is a MN/SD/ND/IA/WS thing) and they were black, and they said impact wrench on them...they were similar to the craftsman ones, except they were only for a very very specific range of sizes, I mean like 31/64-33/64
So they really bit in, and the spirally bit inside was really mean

ah finally found it:
<a href='http://www.xtraktortools.com' target='_blank'>http://www.xtraktortools.com</a>
i had to skip the flash intro so watch at your own risk!
hey! then I found them here:
<a href='http://www.duluthtrading.com/items/32620.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.duluthtrading.com/items/32620.asp</a>
That is considerably cheaper than I paid...Mine was $15 for my one size!

Anyway, if you are curious, I used it to remove a TOTALLY ROUNDED rusty nut that holds the pipe onto the flange of the exhaust manifold on the Tercel...put 14mm impact wrench on it and suddenly the bolt was round....had a little problem getting a nutsplitter on there so found these tools at the store, thought for a while on which size to get, finally picked one, put it on the end of 18" worth of extension, hammered it onto nut firmly, and impact wrenched away...when it came off, I put the tool in the vise and punched the nut out, the damn thing had all these nice shiny spiral grooves in it, and they were DEEP

I've seen the craftsman ones, also at Home Depot under the "IRWIN" name but they look the same, and it seems as though they don't have as many teeth to hold the nut or whatever, and they are at a larger angle, so when you hammer the tool onto the nut, you aren't going to get as much surface area contact (splines digging in) as you are with the tool I bought? Dunno, maybe they work just as well! They certainly cost less.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 11:48 pm

I tried a 6-point and one of those multi-point ones, neither got enough grab. Annoying eh? I don't think those extrator things get to enough of a diameter. Where can I get replacements and how do I remove the dang things in the first place?
I really get annoyed by all this Metric-Imperial crossover.. DANG YOU BUSH, MAKE US METRIC!!!!

Retroloc1 · Post by **Retroloc1** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 12:09 am

When will American people become aware that metric system is FAR easier to use thant any other... (?)
English people made big and long efforts to change but now they really have no regrests.

Please don't consider that as a National Identity (no place for debates about those) but as a comfort and a convenience. And a great help (for young people first) to understand physical relations. I just kindly feel sorry for those who stay away from this easiness...

1 x 1 x 1 x 1 = 1
It's so simple, it's quite magic !

[USA signed the "convention du mÃƒÆ’Ã‚Â¨tre" in... 1875, the "metric conversion act"... in 1975. Maybe in 2075.... (?)]

takza · Post by **takza** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 5:57 am

In the US...sometime around 1975...there was an attempt to get everyone to start THINKING METRIC...it was a pain, but OK with me at the time...but it fizzled out...though I'm sure engineering/scientific types use it all the time.

takza · Post by **takza** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 6:01 am

Typrus wrote: Where can I get replacements and how do I remove the dang things in the first place?

I'd say find a place with a rack and a welder and have them weld a nut on them to get them out (wire welder only..no torch)...but have some good one's ready to go.

Muffler shop????

Probably get new at the dealer?

The plugs are not very deep...only thing that works consistantly is a six-point or box end with an exact fit.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 11:08 pm

And not letting them rust in (babies his finger)

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 12:48 pm

Try using a cold chisel....on what remains of the points try tapping the bolt in a CCW direction...sometimes it works (and sometimes it doesn't).

As far as the US going to metric.... I think ole Ben Franklin was a proponent of that.

Adelard of Bath · Post by **Adelard of Bath** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:52 pm

Can you get a grinder up in there well enough to grind some flats or something on the plugs to get some visegrips on there or something? something to clamp the visegrips on like crazy, then hammer it till it starts to turn? That is, of course, assuming that they aren't crazy crazy tight/stuck.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:27 pm

I tried a few different methods.. Including my 9 foot pipe wrench. I couldn't get anywhere with any of them. The socket kept sliding off, even with my friend holding the socket against it. So pretty much I think the edges are fried, so we will try welding on a nut or something later. If it doesn't damage the cap when we do that we may just leave it like that.