Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior Morons made my car, what about yours?

I learned the hard way why not to try and install your own springs in ILLINOIS where salt destroys ALL! See the bolt in the picture, it was desinged by a moron that should die. For anyone who knows, the middle of it is an allen key part and the outside is a 14mm nut. well even after using several liquids to eat the rust, the middle allen key still completely stripped to a circle while I tried to remove, but its halfway out now so...

is it important for that bushing parts of the link to be completely tight or can I not drive my car temporarily? I see that it is connected to swaybar, will this be a problem(its loose at top where it connects to strut)

BTW this is not my car, borrowed pic

Yeah, I totally know what you're talking about

But I don't know if you can drive it with the end links loose

Maybe it is. But I wouldn't take corners hard though and I have the end link completely out

heat the bolt up first and use vice grips and the strength of Superman.
if that doesn't work, use a dremel tool and try to carefully cut the nut off and replace it w/ a new one.
or do what i did ,and use air tools

good luck.

oh yea, and i don't think you can get away with driving it like that. you should get it fixed asap.

I drove with my end links on the right completely stripped out for some time. I had it tapped and re-tightened when I replaced my front dampers. I would recommend that you fix it as soon as possible. If you have to drive take it way easy. You could really mess something up if that becomes looser and you push your luck. By the way, my car handled like a wet noodle and wasn't safe at all - very dangerous.

i just did this install today and i had the same problem. this is what you do.
1. find a small vice grip (4 or 5 dollars at a hardware store )
2. on the backside of the bracket grip the bolt with the vise grips. git it on there good and tight.
3. hold vice grips and take the nut off

dont fret, its super easy fix

that sounds good

be prepared to dish out $60 bucks for that small part

it would be a good idea to heat it up with a small torch before doing so , that way the metal can expand some.

that would just make it harder to take off

HA ha ha ha, DIE!!!! That's a funny photoshop.

yeah..your car will handle like crap if your endlinks are loose.

after i installed my springs, i realized i didn't tighten one of the end links tight enough and the car felt pretty unstable. also, whenever i hit a bump it made this loud clanking sound..sounded like my car was gonna fall apart.