I just replaced my stock rear shocks with Tokico blues and as part of that process I ran into 2 big time wasters:

1. ABS sensor - don't try to remove it if it is rusted - remove and disconnect the wire with connector instead.

2. Gland nut - I don't have huge vise but everything else had failed: soaked overnight with Liquid Wrench, heated up with torch, air chisel, tried to use 24" extension bar - nothing worked. I ended up with bent extension bar and cut one side of the nut with chisel. The solution:

- take 2 pipe wrenches big enough to hold the nut and the outer case.
- take 2 extension pipes and put them on the handles of the wrenches
- put one wrench on the nut and another - in the opposite direction just below the nut on the outer case and apply the force to the extension pipes. It gave up right away without a fight.

The main point here is to have 2 wrenches applying opposite momentum in the close proximity. This arrangement balances them out so you don't have to apply a lot of force to hold the assembly in place. From the nut point of view the momentum is not balanced and you can create really serious one without much efforts. I used about 2m (6 ft) pipes as extensions and it gave up at approx 20 kg (40 lb) pressure. We unscrewed the second nut without Liquid Wrench, torch or anything else in seconds. This might be old news for someone but I couldn't find it. It was so effective that I decided to share. Credit goes to my friend who was supposed to help mostly physically but turned out to be much more helpful with his head .

 

Did mine with no help and no problem. I used a super large pipe wrench and I bolted the hub to the wheel and stood on it while pulling it. Maybe I was lucky because my car has NO rust. And I gave her a few layers of rubberized undercoating while I was at it.

 

Is there a way to collect these ideas in one place? I'm not sure yours would work in my case but I never tried since I haven't come across it in my search. I tried to bolt it on the links of the car but it didn't provide necessary holding force.

How come you don't have rust? Mine and everybody else here are rusted to boot. My favorite tool to remove M6 bolts is disk cutter or grinder - they simply break on any attempt to unscrew, no matter how long you soak them in anything. What does Connecticut use on the roads in winter to prevent icing? Here in Ontario they use salt and it is a b!tch to our cars.

 

Everybody on here? That's a pretty wide statement. Well I have none not even around the wheel wells or door sills.

 

When I said 'here' I meant Ontario, Canada not org. I trust you don't have any rust; I was just wondering why - does your area use something else for road deicing or you're so good at maintenance that only your car doesn't have rust while everybody in your area does or it's some unknown protection hovering over (and under) your car?

 

My 92SE was a rust bucket and I found a VG shell with a missing tranny and no rust. A lucky find you could call it.