Endlinks Of Doom

[khaosman]

(pissed) (pissed) (pissed) (pissed) (pissed) (pissed)

Endlinks are impossible to get off, fair enough. I figured cutting them would be easy. Wrong I was. I cut the f'ers in half, and removed the front struts. That was easy enough. But now I'm stuck with the little f'n nubs/bolts attached to my front sway. I can't get any decent angles with my jigsaw/hacksaw to cut them off. I got about 1/3rd through one of them, but that is it.

I really don't want to take out my whole front bar, but it is looking like that might be the solution.

Help please Someone hold me

 

[anarchistchiken]

Man up and put some muscle into it. Get an impact hammer, use the air as much as possible, but more than anything just put some force behind it and it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[peepsalot]

You have to use air tools to remove the front endlink bolts. Putting muscle into it does nothing but round off the nuts while the endlink bolt rotates in it's housing. I had to slip a shop a $20 to get them to bust them off with air tools, then hand tightened them and drove it very carefully back to my garage.

 

[proman]

try drilling it off.

 

[chuyler1]

We installed springs on like 5 cars at our last NEPOC install day. We were 0 for 5 in getting the end links off. You can, with help from someone else, install springs without taking them off. However, if you're replacing the struts or installing coilovers you are SOL.

 

[FunkyBuddha]

Should've used liquid wrench the night before spraying the bolts every 4 or 5 hours. My rear ones came off easier when I did that. No cutting involved

 

[khaosman]

I'm installing coilovers, so they have to come off

I put liquid wrench on it earlier, but no luck. My buddy is going to bring over his dremel and I'm going to get a nice metal cutting blade for it. If that fails, I'll have to find a shop to take 'em off. I have no air tools sadly.

The front bar is definitely not coming off either, heh.

 

[anarchistchiken]

Wow, sounds like oyu guys need to use more lube. When we took mine off, we sprayed with wd-40, went and ate lunch, then came back and combined air power with brute force and they came off after a minute or two of sturggling.

 

[peepsalot]

funny thing is my rear endlinks came off like buttah, the front ones are the bitchass

 

[anarchistchiken]

Mine were the exact opposite. My fronts came off with a little pressure with a manual ratchet, not even air tools. The back ones took the struggling.

 

[macklum]

To remove what is left of the endlins ,
On the back you will see 4 little plastic blue dots ,chip them off ,remove the steel part of the end link ,with some work the blue plactic part that is left can be removed , what you will be left with is a ball ,using vise grips hold the ball as tight as you can with the visegrips ,remove the nut ,if you cant remove the nut ,tighten the nut untill the bolt snaps . now you install the new endlliks ,remember to put antisieze on the threads of the new endlink ,this makes it easier to remove later .

 

[khaosman]

macklum, I'll give that a try. thanks. i'm making quite a shopping list for after work, heh

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

Did anyone try a 6 point open end wrench on the nut & hold the center of the bolt by putting an allen wrench in the end of it? All 4 came right off without problem.....

 

[macklum]

Did anyone try a 6 point open end wrench on the nut & hold the center of the bolt by putting an allen wrench in the end of it? All 4 came right off without problem.....

That will only work if the endlinks are not rusted to much, Mazda in is wisdom uses a cad coating that is supposed to resist rust ,ya right , Once the nuts are rusted to the bolt threads ,The threaded shaft will just spin , the allen key wont fit and hold in its hole . so cut them off and replace .

 

[Bumble G]

use a dremel tool and cut off the bolts...

 

[Mike R]

You NEED to prepare for jobs like that. The links need to be sprayed down for a few days before you decide to take 'em off. I did that with mine and they came off easily.

Now, use the dremel with a cuttoff wheel or drill it out.

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

A lot of under car mods become difficult if car has high mileage, age, live at beach or drive where roads are salted for winter. Do what you have to.

 

[khaosman]

Dremel tool ended up doing the trick for me. I need to get some pictures from my friend's camera and then I'll post 'em up. Plus I need to get some of my car with the coilovers on.

The car is from Minnesota, so it has seen plenty of snow and salt.

 

[kakarot]

I tried the dremmel when i did mine but couldn't get a good angle on the bolts. I ended up just going to a muffler shop and paying them $20 to just torch the things off.

 

[khaosman]

I tried the dremmel when i did mine but couldn't get a good angle on the bolts. I ended up just going to a muffler shop and paying them $20 to just torch the things off.

hahaha, yea even with the dremel it took forever. I seriously spent a solid 30-45 minutes cutting each endlink. I went through 4 of the metal cutting blades... good thing since there are only 5 in a pack