I was trying to adjust my tie rods... As of now I have broken 2 stanley 17mm flare (that is about $20-25 worth of broken wrenches) nut wrenches trying to loosen it... I dont understand why they are this tight because I just put them on a couple of days agoo... it is weird...

Also, when I turned on my lights the other night I smelled smoke.... electrical smoke... So, I took off the cluster thing and found that the wires inside of the clip for the light switch are smoking... I am about to just cut the wires and replace the clip with another one, but it looks like that was already done (which is very possible seeing how this is a used car.) How to avoid this from happening again?

 

Your breaking wrenchs on that castleated nut? Yikes, I think the tq spec on that is only 24 ft lbs?

James

 

coat them down with pb blaster, and buy a decent wrench you'll get them loose

are you turning them the right way?

righty tighty lefty loosey lol

 

I put the 12mm on the tie rod (locked aginst the anti-sway bar stuff) and a 17mm on the end.... hit the 17mm with a rubber mallet hard once and boom it should pop loose.

Make sure you're going the right way, on the drivers side the end wrench should go up and toward the driver (opposite on other side).

If you had craftsmen a trip to sears would replace your wrenches had they broken.

Stephen

 

Yea, I use stanley. They have a lifetime rpl policy also, but I think I have to mail the broken wrenches to them. I bought them from the home depot...

 

any type of penatration (sp) lube should loosen that right up

 

Bye bettor wrenches :-P Us an impact gun and use anti seize next time.

 

Yep, theyre real good about that. I was trying to get my front pully nut off and I had a 1/2 drive breaker and a 3/8 drive socket (I had already stripped out the internals of my 3/8 socket wrench) so I got an adapter. I sheared the tip off and came back with it, so he exchanged it for an impact grade one for the same price. I then came back with it sheared off and he refunded me all the money.

 

Lol... I need to start shopping at Sears.... **** HOME DEPOT!!!! I bought all my tools from them when I was working for them for a while... I got their Huskie Pro 135pc Tool set and I also got their Stanley 201 pc tool set (the Stanley set was a Christmas present.) Overall, I love the tools... this is the first time I have ever broken a name branded wrench (not a rachet, but a wrench... The wrench actually broke into pieces....) I just thought it was funny and wanted to share it. Gonna get some pb blaster tomorrow and I'm gonna try getting a longer wrench... l8ter.

 

Yeah, I've never heard of a wrench of any quality snapping in two. I have the 8 dollar set or 9 from walmart and never had problems.
The problem with sears is that they are expensive, at least for caftsman. I just shop there because our home depot has a shitty selection of metric tools.
On a seperate note, I ended up having to take a blow torch to that damn bolt to get it off.

 

I have a box of snapon and MAC and Craftsmen of broken sockets ratchets and wrenches. wrenches ushaly hold up more.

 

yeah
I've even used reasonably cheap wrenches on stuff like that.

so anyways
once you get a quality wrench, you can use a jack on the ground to "jack up" the end of the wrench and force the bolt to turn, your stock jack will work really well since it has a slot to hold the wrench in even.

that's how I had to remove my tierods.

 

On my old AE86, I tried to change the trans fluid, and when I was trying to open up the drain plug, my wrench actually expanded, moved around the groove, and closed back up. It didn't break though. That's pretty crazy.

 

Heat it, use a torch and heat it till it is cherry red. I know this will techniclly weaken the strenght of the nut. But, hey I have been doing this for year in MI the home of rust and seized parts, you will be fine. Just heat it up till it is cherry red then put the wrench on and wiggle it back onad forth.

 

I got it loose. I bought a Craftsman 17mm spanner, proped the 12mm under the control arm to keep the tie rod from spinning, and stood on the 17... I weigh 225 and it still took a couple bounces.... And that was after I sprayed it with pb blaster a few minutes earlier.... I cannot believe it was that tight...