What to do about this? (sway bar endlink)

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AutoEuphoria

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'08 CPW Mazdaspeed 3
I was attempting to adjust my sway bar a couple of weeks ago, and ran into an issue. Although it's not 100% critical, I would like to resolve it sometime in the near future.

The sway bar endlink has a stud with a recessed hex hole. The idea is that you stick a hex wrench in the middle of the stud to keep it from turning while you loosen the nut holding the sway bar to the endlink. Well, being in Michigan, everything rusts solid within a month of driving in ice and snow, and having gone through an entire winter last year this bolt has, somehow, fused itself to the stud. I sprayed it with PB blaster...WD40...nothing loosened it up. In the process I ended up stripping out that internal hex hole...so now I have no way of keeping the stud from turning as I attempt to break that nut free.

At this point, I'm OK with replacing that endlink...I just have to figure a way to get the nut off without damaging the sway bar. I don't have a welder...I have no welding skills. I also do not have a torch or a cutting wheel. I'd rather figure a way to do this myself than pay someone to do it for me.

Any suggestions?
 
Do you have a drill with bits for drilling steel? You can always try drilling into the stud (from the recessed hole side) with the biggest bit you can find that is still smaller than the stud, which should make getting the nut off easier (if only because it allows you to break everything - including the fused piece of the stud - off with a wrench).
 
This sucks I had it happen on the front well actually the place that installed my springs did it. Eventually another member on the forum helped me out with his pneumatic cutting wheel. It wasnt the easiest. Im not sure if the rear is the same but I assume thats what your talking about. The fronts had the same allen key inside a bolt type design. Good luck.
 
well, on my endlink that had stripped, it wasn't the hex part, it was the threads....what i did was strong arm it... i broke the yellow/plastic casing on the opposite end of the hex...then i got a vice grip and got a grip on that end, and started loosening the nut....it took a while cause the threads were stripped, but it worked.....
 
Is there a secondary bigger hex nut fixed to the stud behind where the sway bar end link bolts to, some manufactures do this, if not, you can try using vice grips on the back of the link( although this usually breaks the link).
 
Stripped the hex bolt while trying to re-install my Progress RSB tonight. Have you priced what a replacement endlink would cost? Why did Mazda use this hex configuration?!?!
 
Bringing back old threads is the name of my game!


You had to buy new end links right? $40 from mazda $30 from autozone (and they do get the one for the mazdaSPEED 3).
 
I just stripped the hex insert on one of my rear endlinks this morning while trying to tighten it down. After cussing up a storm, I found some nylon washers, cut them in half, and jammed them between the endlink nut and the RSB. It's a temp solution, but now it's nice and tight. I too will need to eventually replace the endlink. Thinking about going AWR.
 
Yeah...I bit the bullet and purchased two new ones from Mazda for ~$60.
 
How I took mine off: After using a tourch to heat up the bolt, It loosened up the greese or whatever and just yanked the link off the other side of the allen bolt. Then clamped on the vice grips and took my anger out on unscrewing the nut from the other side.
 
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