I had everything apart the other day, soaking in PB Blaster and promptly failed at getting the torsion bars on my Sierra 1500 to move forward from inside their respective keys.
I reassembled it all again and want to come back with a rented demolition hammer like this:
Youtube tells me air chisels work amazingly well but I don’t have access to one. But I can rent this above. Does your instinct tell you it will perform the same function as the air chisel?
(You have a window through the crossmember to access the rear of the torsion bar. It’s SUPPOSED to slide forward so the key just falls out but I live in the Northeast and when two metals are that cozy, they don’t like to be separated.)
Below: you can see the relationship between the bar and the key. Bar must be slid toward the front of the vehicle to release the key
As long as there is no load on the bar, why not? Might not be enough room to get to it however.
In all honesty, HF has air hammers for $11. Buy two.
Depending on where you're @ in MA, I have a pretty nice air hammer and compressor to run it. You're welcome to stop by and use it. I'm on the GRM on-the-road assist map.
WonkoTheSane said:
Depending on where you're @ in MA, I have a pretty nice air hammer and compressor to run it. You're welcome to stop by and use it. I'm on the GRM on-the-road assist map.
That’s very generous of you! I’m pretty close to the shore but I’ll check it out as a backup plan!
In reply to Curtis :
The only things I see that are electric (no access to air and I have to have the entire vehicle with me to do it) are several hundred dollars.
I see bits for ~$11 but no actual electric “air hammers” for much less than $400
Have any plumber or construction friends? You don't need one that big. Find someone with an SDS or SDS-max rotary hammer. Set it to just hammer and you're set.
I have one but I'm in PA.
The benefit of an air chisel over a mini jackhammer is that the air chisel is a much higher frequency. it doesn't hit as hard, but it buzzes which does wonders for breaking up the bonds in the rust. When you think about it, on harder substrates, a higher frequency can do more work than a lower one. Hence why a tiny air chisel would do the trick, but a 10 lb sledge won't ever move it.
I think a rotary hammer or jack hammer will do the trick, just be careful not to peen the crap out of the torsion bar making it harder to reinstall
Have you heated it? Might smack the heat to the key and see if it helps.
Buy the bauer rotary hammer at home depot, it’ll die shortly anyway so then take it back for a refund.
