Life Stories #5 Fixing Sway Bar Links

Recently, I sent our car to the mechanic for some general maintenance: oil change, transmission fluid change, differential fluid change, etc.. During the inspection, the mechanic found some major issues (i.e., extremely worn ball joints and three broken sway bar links). The total repairs were near $1,000, so I decided to replace the sway bar links myself. This would save us about $200.

Once I got under the car, I quickly discovered that the nuts on the linkages were rusted on tight. Spraying WD40 did not help. Also, once side of the linkages is a round ball, which is difficult to hold onto with a pliers or a channel lock by hand. Finally, I did not have ramps or safety jacks, or a garage, so I needed to work on removing and replacing the linkages without lifting the car.

The first problem was how to hold onto the ball end of the bolts. I don’t have many custom tools in my toolbox, but I do have a pipe wrench that I used in the past for sum plumbing work. I figured that if a pipe wrench could turn a smooth, round steel pipe; it could hold onto the ball end of the bolt. This worked, but the heavy pipe wrench was difficult to hold under the car, lying on my back.

It took me about 2 hours to remove one of the bolts this way, using the pipe wrench and a normal wrench. I decided that this was way too long, and went and bought a hacksaw. Lying on my stomach, I cut through the rest of the bolts, using both hands to move the saw because of the limited area and range of movement. I was able to remove the rest of the bolts in only 2 more hours.

Finally, I was able to attach the new linkages to the rear of the car, saving about $150 and learning about the difficulties of removing rusted bolts. I still have the front driver's side linkage to fix, but I found out, via research on the web, that you can use heat and wax to remove the hard-to-reach bolts in the front of the car.