I know versions of the following question have come up many times before, but I haven't really found any completely helpful advice in the archives about my particular challenge.

I'm replacing the everything in my '94 K5 front end, including the lower ball joints and bushings. I sprung for the $70 for a real unloading tool so I wouldn't have to worry about a puller or some such exploding on me, and as a result was able to unload the bars easily.

Now I'm at the point where the Chilton manual helpfully just says to "slide the bars forward" so I can remove the lower arms. Of course, they are rusted firmly in place.

I hit both ends with PB Blaster; now I guess I'm supposed to try to drift the bars out from the back via the small holes in the support crossmember in which the adjusting arms ride. But, you can only get at the holes at a steep angle, and so far I'm just buggaring up the ends of the bars.

From what I've seen here, maybe I just need a little bigger diameter brass drift so I don't tear things up, and a bigger hammer! Is that pretty much it, or are there other tricks I should know?

Thanks guys!

 

get a smashing bar and a big hammer, and pound the torsion bar at the front in the control arm thats usualy where they get stuck and than try pounding it out of the cross member at the rear. spray everything with pb.

 

Thanks war, that's pretty much the picture I had, but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything before going to town with the big hammer! Good idea about trying to loosen things up at the front of the bar before going to the rear.