I cut off my sway bar links as they were old and rusted, but the bolt still won’t come out. Any suggestions? I can’t get the nut or bolt to turn at all with a breaker bar and I don’t have an impact. I also tried soaking in penetrant and using a gear puller. Any help is appreciated!
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I don’t get it. Don’t sway bar links on CR-Vs are attached to the sway bar via a nut on the ball joint and the other end to the McPherson strut assembly? Once you cut off the nut on either end, should be good. But you are saying your trying to get the bolt out, bolt out of what exactly?
Ohhhhhh, we are looking at the other end of the sway bar…
I think your two options are to just replace the whole sway bar, or extract the threaded rod left of the ball joint. You would have to drill into it, and use some sort of screw extractor. It’s not an exact science and can be a paint in the butt. Might be less headache to just replace just the sway bar.
If you brake the nut free and turn it just a little bit, the ball joint will spin with it, but you can cut on the exposed part of the stud to cut the nut off, then pull on the rest of the sway bar link to release it from the sway bar. Can also split the nut to get it off the stud. Or just cut a slot into the stud to get a good grip on it with pliers, then counterturn while you turn the nut off. Or maybe your lucky and have good aftermarket ones with wrench flats already on the stud.
In this case it looks like you cut off both ends of the stud on the ball joint on the sway bar??? Now your left with a part of the stud in the sway bar and nothing on either end.
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The link has to be cut flush with the sway bar.
Tester
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Am I screwed then or should I try extracting it? It’s hard to get any solid force on the bar.
Worth giving it a shot. Not sure if your able to get a drill bit in there. If not successful in extracting it. Can just drill it out so the hole is large enough to accept a new sway bar link. But might be more headache than it’s worth. Might be easier to extract it with the sway bar out of the car anyways. But at that point the sway bar is already out. I guess how much is your time worth to you vs whatever it costs to buy a new sway bar.
I’d say take the sway bar out (assuming the other end doesn’t have the same issue, and you already removed the link), attempt to extract it. If not successful just make the hole big enough to accept new ball joint stud. After a few hours and not getting there, might want to just go get a new one.
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You can’t cut this piece off?
Tester
Ah OK. I see what you mean. I didn’t know that wasn’t part of the sway bar. I’ll try and cut that off.
So from the looks of it. Maybe I’m not seeing it. But the stud is stuck in the hole in the sway bar. You can’t cut off the end of the sway bar, well I mean you can but how are you going to reinstall the link?
I think you need to extract what is left of the stud or drill it out, or buy a new sway bar. As you will likely have to remove it from the vehicle to make extraction/drilling out easier, might as well as buy a new sway bar.
“I can’t get the nut or bolt to turn at all with a breaker bar and I don’t have an impact.”
What are you even able to grab onto of what is left of the stud?
Also, you might be able to just press it out with a screw press, not sure if one will fit this application, but it’s another option. Or use a bearing driver and give it a few good whacks from a hammer.
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The back side has what’s left of me trying to cut off the nut and stud. Kind of hard to get in the back even with a dremel. So I figure if cutting it flush on the front side doesn’t work, I’ll remove the sway bar, try a quick extraction drill, and if that isn’t working, replace the sway bar.
Ah I see.
Not sure on this vehicle. Is the brown circle part (red arrow) also the stud or is it just the silver circular part (yellow part)?
Maybe the stud is tapered on this vehicle? Meaning that it is fatter on one end over the other? If one end is fatter than the other, it will only come out and go in one way. If it is not tapered, then it shouldn’t matter and braking the nut off won’t help, it’s seized into the hole.
But if the end we are looking at is the fatter end, then yea it will not come out because of the nut and have to brake the nut free.
I don’t believe it’s tapered on this vehicle.
Are you able to turn the nut, and can watch the stud turn from the view we see in the picture, inside of the sway bar hole? If so it is not seized!
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Take the sway bar off. Then you can reach, cut or pound anything you need.
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I can think of too many times when I jumped through hoops to try and fix a part on the car when just removing it, or removing a part that was in the way, would have made things so much easier.
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It’s settled then, I’ll pull the sway bar out (I have new bushings sitting right here as well). I was a little nervous about whether I’d be able to do that but at this point I have no choice. I’ll pull at and beat on it and update with the results later today. Thanks again for all the tips and help. Much appreciated!
I’d say look at other link for hints but you cut both off.
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Heating up a bolt with a torch somehow weakens the hold of the rust and lets it come out with much less force. It just doesn’t work when plastic parts are near by. You sometimes have to be careful of paint too. Was this tried yet?
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The labor guide for a 2007 CR-V shows 2.3 hours to remove and install the front stabilizer bar. Support the engine, disconnect the engine mount and lower the subframe, then remove the stabilizer bar.
Or finish cutting the stud off, should take 5 minutes with a cut-off wheel or sharp drill bit.
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Would this have worked?
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No it would not.
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I think he needs to cut the rest of the nut off
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Yup, he’s already removed anything that might keep the threaded stud from turning when he tries to remove the nut. The only choice is to cut the nut off or cut the side shown in the picture flush with the stab bar. You could weld a nut on to hold it if he had a welder.
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