Am I out of luck? Trying to get the 2 large 22mm bolts from the front strut loose. I have an impact wrench, but the compressor is kinda girlie and I can't get em to budge.

No one rents compressors around here and I tried a breaker bar.

Any tricks without an impact gun? Or anyone know who rents around Chicago?

 

Pipe. Long pipe.
Use it on the end of a good, solid wrench.
It works and is cheap.

 

torque wrench - breakers bar they are about 10 bucks at part stores.

 

be MANLY and break that **** loose!!! Get that adrenaline flowing and get it done! lol. I buddy of mine was able to get it loose with a regular breaker bar (1/2" drive). He is a big guy though. Maybe try going up to a 3/4" or even a 1" drive for this. I personally find impact wrenches to be for speed, but anything can be done without one, just a bit slower.

Oh, and maybe throw like 2 6" extension bars on there to really get some leverage and give it all you have. Just make sure to not be torquing it on an angle. When applying THAT much pressure, you have to be that much more careful not to break anything

 

You're not a kid, but I figure i'd still say it:

Lefty loosey...... please don't be torquing it the wrong way / tighter!! Lets go counter-clockwise!

 

I'll give the pipe-to-breaker bar a try tomorrow. Maybe I'll eat some spinach tonight. Lot's of spinach!

 

just saw the lefty loosy- nice! Do you habe to support the nut when your crankin the bolt?

 

 

If you can access the nut properly to apply some reverse tension, that could only helps. I forget exactly what it looks like down there as to whether or not you can access it, but if you can, sure!

 

Holy crap!! All done! BTW - the next day I took the breaker bar into the garage and it didn't seem like a big deal. Hope I didn't scare anyone from trying this. (Think i was going clockwise!!! - DOH! It was one of those days. I think I mentally quit already.)

Anyway, 4 new rubbers $400, Eibach Pro-Kit springs $200, Progress Rear Sway bar $170, additional tools to install $200 (an entire metric socket set would be cheaper than $6 a socket I was droppin), being overly **** cuz it's your own, countless hours cuz you want to torque spec everything, putting up with the shop guy's spiel on not using TRD parts- and the $90 for a dealer alignment ....

Hopping on to the e-way feeling incredibly stable, then looking down at the speedometer and realizing you'll be using your radar detector a little more often now... priceless!

Ahhhh, I love my car finally!

 

Congrats!! Enjoy it!!!

 

WD-40 that b^atch also.

 

bigger hammer & wextra band-aids..

 

Ya know, it takes a lot of guts to admit a simple mistake like that on a 'car site.' We've probably all done it one time or another, but few of us will admit it in public.

*I* respect that.

Glad you got it all squared away, and really happy with the changes it made for you and your Scion!

Tom

 

Mine are not corroded like some back east so I was able to take a 1/2" drive socket and pull darn hard but got them loose. Now I have a 1/2 aircat 1000M nitrocat impact, it does not even notice the bolts haha, just pounds them loose in a second "coupled to a 60G upright compressor"

Just saw your comment, I do not care who you are, we have all made that mistake at one point in our life hahaha.

 

Thanks for all that support. Well worth all the pain.

I still haven't found the breaking point yet w/ new rear sway and 4 springs. Mind you I want these tires to last a little longer than the last set so I've been takin it relatively easy, but my friends asked about the difference the new goods made and this is how I explained it...

....Imagine dating a girl for a few years and she's quite "tame" when it comes to "romance". Then one day the same exact girl gets AALL FREAKY on you and starts talkin dirty, etc. (clean vers.)....

Funny that one of my buds still had to ask, "so is it better at all?"
Obviously he missed the point. It's the same exact car you've grown used to, but all of a sudden it has something new to offer! Just have to find some twisties worthy.