Torsion bar stuck in anchor arm

[battleax]

Hey all,

 

I've been on this board for a while but haven't done much posting, so first let me say thanks to all of you who are posting all this stuff- my pathfinder wouldn't be what it is today without npora. Here's a problem for ya:

 

I was hoping to put some sway-a-ways in my '90 pathy today, but the old passenger side bar absolutely refuses to budge from the rear anchor on the crossmember (driver's side came out with a couple light taps!). Right now I'm pulling on it with a comealong winch from the front, PB'ing the thing and banging on it from behind like hell every half hour or so, and smoking a lot of cigarettes and saying a lot of bad words...I'm just about out of ideas here...I messed arround with a gear puller but that wouldn't work, tried just yanking it with a friends truck, that didn't work, either. So, two questions:

 

1. Anyone have any tricks/creative ideas? (yeah, i know, "more PB blaster")

 

2. What's the worst case scenario here if the t-bar has really welded itself into the anchor arm?

 

:help:

[cdhicks99]

It's stuck in the adjuster????

Usually it's stuck in the LCA.

[mws]

PB, load, heat, shock

 

- Let the PB soak as long as you can wait

- apply preload via the comealong

- then heat up the "outer" part so it expands. I use a propane torch.

- smack it with a 3 lb hammer. The shock loading helps break up corrosion bonds.

 

- Repeat in cycles every few hours. Sometimes the PB takes a while to do its magic. The heat will help.

 

 

If all that fails, time for a small shape charge....

 

And you're welcome! But now you need to start contributing knowledge and advice as well! Let us know how you get it out.

[unccpathfinder]

mine are were like that when i did the swap and 1 of the 2 fell out while i was dragging the whole crossemeber and both t bars across the driveway to throw in the garage...i guess after slinging them around in the garage 1 finally came loose as i was dragging it back out to install them...

[Casey.T]

Did you loosen up the 3 bolts for the front mount? If they have any tension on them they are a B!tch....

 

I got one of mine out by using a punch with a solid smack of the hammer 12, 6, 3, 9... took a bit but it came off....

[cdhicks99]

My 94's had never even been adjusted before I took them out, they slid right off the adjuster.

[RedPath88]

Yep same as my 88 (just short of 300K)

 

At least to my knowlege they have never been adjusted.. and the amount of sag the front end had before I did it supports that.

[battleax]

Sorry guys, but this story doesn't have a happy ending; I gave up this afternoon (after two days of PB, winch, propane and hammer) and brought the truck into a shop to have them weld the torsion bar off and smack the end out of the anchor arm; hopefully the splines in there are ok (because the nissan dealer wants $45 for the anchor arm )

 

I guess the former owner overtorqued the whole thing or something, so the lesson to be drawn here is be careful with your t-bars. Also, my dust boots were pretty torn up and I'll bet that didn't help matters much either.

 

Thanks for the input anyway!