Reading the post and
speaking with Rich decided to replace the rear toe links in my garage.
Of course the basics are
ignored and I’m sure there are other approaches and just wanted to share mine.
The air box is removed to
give access to the locknut coming thru above the catalytic converter.
I removed the belly pan for
a variety of reasons but not required, mostly being able to jack up the car and
support it with a jack stand.
The wheel is removed, the
brake pads and caliper, the emergency brake outboard section and pads, and the
brake rotor.
Now I found something not
mentioned in the maintenance manual or when stopping by a dealer not part of
the parts manual.
There is a cover protecting
the outboard end of the toe link held in place with 3 button hex head
M5-0.80x10mm screws that have a coating of green Loctite on the threads. I show
a photo of a hand held impact K-D tool that helps break fasteners like those
loose.
Once the cover is off the
locknut and bolt can be removed and the spacers on top and bottom of my right
side outer toe link are anodized blue; but I still kept the upper and lower
separate and returned them to the proper location.
I should also mention using
a second jack with a hockey puck to raise the spindle assembly toe link to a
horizontal position thinking it might put less stress on the assembly making it
easier to slide out and replace.
Removing the frame side lock
nut was a bit of a task using a 5/16 6 point socket holding the thread
extension and a 18mm wrench.
Assembly was straightforward
with only a minor amount of fiddling and care to get the outboard section in
place with the spacers and the bolt through, starting the locknut and torqueing
it to spec.
The inboard locknut above
the catalytic converter in my opinion a bit slow. I could snug it with a
normal wrench but reaching the desired torque had me order a snap on torque
adapter on line. Had to do the extension formula to recalculate the torque
wrench setting and was only able to get one flat at a time while tightening.
Of course I made some
measurements of the old toe link length and adjusted the new piece close to
that knowing a full machine alignment will follow.
Of course ordered a bag of
100 small screws and maybe won’t use but one or two.
Had to go buy the correct
Loctite.
Main point is I’d be
concerned about having anyone who hasn’t done some work on these cars tackle
this job but it’s much easier than replacing the muffler if doing it yourself.