How to remove the sway bar links on a stock 2003 LS two door. The upper nut is off on both sides. The upper washers won't come off on either the driver's or the passenger side. I can spin the bottom nut and the upper washer just spins. The bolt in the S/B end link will not come out. I am thinking I should put a Vise grip on that upper washer to see if then I can unscrew the bolt. How do I remove those two bottom bolts on each side.??

I am doing this S/B Bushing and end links R & R to cure an irritating squeak which happens when I hit a speed bump, turn the steering wheel left or right, and hit any small bump in the road. These S/B links are the stock kind , not the after market version. I want to eliminate these S/B bushings and end links in order to see if the squeak was there or it was coming from the more difficult, expensive ,and complex ball joints. SUV has about 123, 500 miles on it.

 

Cut them in the middle with a sawsall or hacksaw.

 

Just to clarify my above post, I am trying to eliminate these sway bar bushings and end links as a source of the constant squeaking. I do want to keep the sway bar and end link important function of keeping a 'safe and controlled' path around curves. I want to try to replace them with a new set of bushings and end links or just lube them with a silicon grease if they are salvageable.
Will the trick of holding that top washer with a pair of 'needle nose' ViseGrips work to remove the end links from the suspension ?

 

I'm not too sure about the needle nose... but you might want to look into a greasable setup, as they have it for the front sway bar.

If they don't have it, maybe look into drilling and taping a grease fitting there...

I've been almost at the point of removing mine, if it wasn't for the fact I tow a trailer more often then not...

 

Depending on how seized they are, your idea of gripping the top washer to turn the lower bolt might work. I'd suggest not bothering trying to salvage them. Good quality replacements are not expensive, so if all else fails just cut the link in the middle like AJBert said, and pop in new ones.

Good luck hunting down the squeaking noise. I had a similar situation that drove me nuts for months. On mine it ended up being the sway bar bushings that hold it to the frame mounts.

 

I already have purchased the two fat bushings for the center mounts where they mount to the suspension cross member. Each one is held by two 13mm bolts to the crossmember. That isn't the problem. The problem I am having trouble with is the end links not coming off. Each one is a simple bolt ---10 mm bolt head on the lower end and IIRC 14 mm nut on the upper end. I got the large 14mm nut on the upper end off . Now it is the washer just below that nut that just spins. This is due to----I am guessing here-- to the washer being a 'captive washer' to aid in the manufacturing process. If that is true, then I should be able to clamp on that top washer with some tool like a Vise Grip and that will allow me to spin that washer off and then the end link would drop off. Then I could replace it with a new end link. Most are less than $10.00 before shipping at Rock Auto. Very inexpensive.

Another thing I have learned is to not use sprays such as WD-40, PB Blaster, and other penetrants on these stock rubber bushings because the petroleum in them deteriorate the rubber. I have often read people say to see which bushing is squeaking by liberally spraying them down with WD-40 or other petroleum based spray. Not good. Yes, it may temporarily quiet the squeak but the squeak will soon come back with a vengeance. Plus now the rubber bushing is mush. Then you will have to replace that bushing because the petroleum disintegrated the rubber. Sort of a self fulling prophesy. Use silicon spray on Rubber bushings.

It is getting cold here-- Wed. am is predicted to be 21*- well, cold for us----and I want to wrap this project up. I am thinking about going into town and buying a can of silicon spray and dousing those two sway bar end link bushings. Put it all back together and and see if that cures the incessant squeaking. Then I could move to the buying and installing of the two NEW end links or moving on up scale to the the lower ball joints project.
The lower ball joints on a 4WD suspension looks like a more complex and expensive project. From watching the various You Tube vid's.

 

Back to the future ---I think I found an answer in the 'Related links' box below my post I was writing. I wiped out my post I was writing, , but may have answered my own question . I had posted way back in 06-07-2020 about my S/B end links was missing a nut on the top of one of the S/B end link bolts. I said the washer was loose ?!? I was in the parking lot of the Adv Auto parts store. So I went in to AAP and bought a bubble pack of Dorman M8-1.25 nuts for $3.99. I then went outside and laid down on the hot asphalt and installed a new nut on each of the two end link bolts. I thought that somehow this nut was missing on both sides.
Mystery solved?? But now I think it is this explanation---there was no nut installed on top at the factory. The washer has a small thin captive nut built-in on the underside of the top washer. For ease of manufacturing, the GM engineers had combined a washer and a thin captive nut on the bottom of the washer.

 

More from the past--- this one is from Thogert, who was the LRD light man on this forum. .... He says back in 2013 that :

You are not missing the top nut. The top washer is actually a nut/ washer combo thing. It unscrews just like normal with some vice grips.

He was responding not to me and my question , but to Ratrodsareforever' post about his end link question.. Jim in SC

REad the 'Related topics' just below the 'Quick Reply' regards this question. Thank, Jim

 

Thogert was the LED light man, Sorry, Thogert. We miss you.

 

I already had purchased the sway bar bushings. Now I have gone to Rock Auto Parts and selected a Moog sway bar end link p.n. K700526 for $5.84 each. Two are required. That's $5,84 plus tax and shipping EACH. Now I have received these recently and the enclosed instructions are worse that terrible. The legal precautions are 3/4ths of the single page of instructions. Thanks, attorneys. The actual step by step is even worse. The dark photo is murky and blurred. I went to the 'INFO' page provided by the Moog Problem Solver on the S/B end link page and the link is below. It gives you more helpful information on how to install it and what the individual parts are made of. I have always liked Moog suspension parts and these are polyurethane on top of that. Here is a link to the Rock Auto/ Moog Problem solver info .It is general to all Moog end links, not just the K700526 model. It explains the placing of the bushings, washers, long bolts, and nuts.

https://www.rockauto.com/genImages/1...Link_ENG-R.pdf

Now that brings me to another important point. The polyurethane bushings on the end links and whatever the sway bar bushings to the frame are. Both need to be lubed with silicon grease. If not greased, they will squeak. If greased with a petroleum based product , it will destroy the bushing over time. So don't use WD-40 or PB Blaster if petroleum based.