Im replacing the lower control arm on my 1998 f150 and ive got the tension removed from the torsion bar and the torsion bolt removed but the torsion bar wont come out. Is there a trick to this cause the manual says it should slide right out but the bar wont budge.

 

It's probably rusted. Spray it with some penetrating oil and tap it with a hammer.

 

alredy tried that still wont budge

 

I just had this problem aswell but I had to take the torsion bars out for my lift. We tried to "jiggle" it like the instructions said but there was no way seeing my truck was a 1998 aswell and has some rust on the torsion bars. Look at the backside of the torsion bar in the crossmember and hit it with a punch and hammer frontwards. The only way mine were able to come off from the keys was cutting the crossmember holding the torsion bars and keys with a sawzall. $200 for new crossmember. Wouldn't recommend unless its a last resort. Also once you do get the keys off take some sand paper and sand off the rust on the ends of the torsion bars that go inside the keys. Save yourself this hassle if you ever have to take them off again.

Good luck

 

I had this problem too when I put my lift on. I had to soak them repeatedly with PB blaster and push them forward out of the keys. I could not get them out of the lower control arms but I was removing them anyway to replace the bushings.

After removing the control arms, t bars still attached, I had to pound them out with a maul. Afterward, I cleaned up the connecting surfaces with sandpaper and applied anti-seize before reassembly to prevent this in the future.

Good Luck!