kagekun

Hopefully you guys have recieved your bars and have installed them. I went out to install mine and i could get to all the bolts just fine, the drivers side was a bit tight so i have to use a wrench. My problem is the bolts up front are basically there to stay it seems. There not rusted on the outside, but i cant budge these things for the life of me. Can i use something like WD40 to loosen them up or do i need to take it to a shop with a lift and have them take it off?

Davard

Sounds like you need a bigger wrench. I'm guessing about 150 ft.lbs to break those things loose. Mazda may have used some form of lock-tite on those bolts to keep them from coming out on their own. It's been quite a few years since I took them off the first time, so I don't remember how tight they were.

beachnut

Yep, they did use lock-tite, but I was able to break them using my 24" non-ratcheting super **** bar (man, I love that thing ). It was a little tricky though getting the wrench and 17mm socket onto the passenger side bolt, even after jacking the oil pan. After a couple turns I switched to a smaller wrench.

kagekun

but but......i only have my one thingy, i have to buy jackstands now . I dont have a uber wrench, just the regular run of the mill tool set sizes.

beachnut

Yeah, you definitely could use jackstands. It's best to have both wheels off at the same time. I actually wished I had two floor jacks since I like to leave the floor jack under the front lip of the crossbar even while the car's on the stands - a little extra security. But I needed the floor jack (and a small 2x4) to jack up the motor under the oil pan. If you don't get the oil pan out of the way, you'll never get that bolt out - it's like 4" long!

kagekun

so do i just put a jackstand under the oilpan abd crank it up?

mazdaspeedwest

NO!

use a 2x4 between the jack and the pan and try to lift from an edge, as it's the strongest point. Jack it up carefully and for as little time as possible to not stress out the motor mounts for too long.

kagekun

whew thanks i might have broken something lol. Ok so..

oil pan
|
2x4
|
jack

when you say on the edge, you mean the edge of the oil pan right?

Davard

The little jackstands I got at Pep Boys were like $15 for two.

And if you have a (good) floor jack, you likely have an extension for your shorty ratchet (you put the jack handle over the end of the ratchet). Just don't do it with a ratchet that doesn't come with a lifetime guarantee (like a Craftsman).

kagekun

heh, ok. I had my bars all installed and it was just sexy. For the front bar, i couldnt put it on the "bolt" side so i just took off the nut and put it on that side(towards the middle of the car insted of the front). Well one big dip later, my bar hit and is now loose.

How do i go about jacking up my friggin engine, i tried it the first time and the whole car started to go up . Did any of you run across this problem putting the front one on??