Urethane or Poly Graphite sway bar bushings available?

[JFairman]

Has anyone found and installed urethane or polygraphite sway bar bushings or bushings with brackets that fit the origonal swaybars on a 930?

I measured mine and it looks like the front sway bar is 22mm and the rear is 20mm and I think they are origonal 1987 930 swaybars.

I've always replaced the origonal rubber bushings in my BMW's in the past and liked the slightly flatter cornering they provided but I have not found any that are made for stock 930 bars.

I found these universal ones in 20mm for the rear bar but don't know how well they would actually fit.
Prothane 19-1119-BL Prothane Universal Sway Bar Bushing Mount Sets

The front ones would have to be 22mm and there are 4 bushings in all.
The outer bushings would have to fit in the origonal brackets welded on to the front control arms.

So, has anyone else succesfully found harder than rubber sway bar bushings that fit, and done this?

thanks... Jim

[911st]

Jim

I have not seen many but all the hard bushings seemed to be for straight sway bars with detachable arms so they could be sliped on.

I guess they would have to be split or double split to fit over a bent sway bar.

[JFairman]

All of them in urethane or rubber I have seen or used were split on the middle of the bottom flat section so you can spread them to get them over the bar.

The urethane ones are just flexible enough to grease them up and spread the split and wrestle with them a little to get them over the bar at the mounting points.

[911st]

Thx, I wondered about that. I know there are different stiffnesses available.

I had looked into bushings at one time as I was going to have ADCO build me some custom 25mm front and rear stock style bars.

I suspect you have seen there are some aftermarket hard bushings that also have grease channels and a zerk fitting options.

You probably already know but I beilve Rebel Racing and Weltmeister make adjustable rear drop links with no rubber. Front bar ends would probably have to stay rubber.

Good luck.

[JFairman]

Hi Keith
I've seen the things online you mentioned. The grease fittings and channels in the bushings seem like a very good idea.

When enlarging a low rez image of some universal poly sway bar bushings the split for installing them was on the side like the oem front ones and not the bottom like the origonal rear ones. That seems better since the loads are mostly on the top and bottom of the bushing.

It may be hard to squeeze poly bushings into the bushing mounts on the front control arms and if you did get them in there it would probably be difficult to push the end of a greased sway bar through it so you may be right that softer rubber bushings need to stay there.
Might be worth a try though... I just don't feel like spending alot of money on adjustable sway bar kits.

[A930Rocket]

^^^^ That was my question on the front control arms, plus what to do on the rear sway bar end links? Leave them stock or try to swap the bushings for urethane?

An aftermarket rear sway bar is a snap to install. Weltsheister is the cheapest and works and it goes up from there for better quality, TRG, Tarret, etc.

[911st]

Just a thought guys.

Sway bar's, the arms, and drop links are not that expensive. They come in stock and custom lengths that will fit our cars from several USA makers if you do a search. I think our rear is a stock length from what I remember.

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

...plus what to do on the rear sway bar end links? Leave them stock or try to swap the bushings for urethane?

As noted above about RR:

Adjustable Sway Bar Drop Links For Factory Rear Sway Bars

For all 911, 930, 912 65-89 with 78-89 factory rear swaybar


If adjustable sway bars are out of your budget then these adj. drop links are great additions for
performance oriented cars, extracting the most from your stock bars.

Upgrade your stock rear swaybar with this simple bolt in replacement for the factory drop links.

Adjustable length to eliminate swaybar preload (very important).

Correctly sized, precision, Teflon-lined rod-ends for smooth and quiet operation, long life, and high
reliability. No wear and rattling problems, like those seen with other designs, due to undersized or low
quality rod ends.

Eliminates the factory compliant rubber drop link bushings for improved swaybar response.

Precisely connects the stock swaybar to the rear trailing arm.

[JFairman]

I've seen those adjustable rear sway bar links.
They are $140 from pelican and my rear sway bar has no preload on one side over the other so i don't need the expense of the adjustable rod ends for my stock sway bar.
Pelican Parts.com - Tarett Engineering Adjustable Drop Links

Makes more sense to add $163 and just get the Weltmeister 22mm adjustable rear sway bar kit that comes with rod end links.
Pelican Parts - Product Information: SB-2250

The rubber bushing in the stock links is small and it might not be hard to remove it with alot of heat and substitute 2 harder tapered to fit bushings on each side in place.
I don't think anyone makes bushings for them so you'd have to modify some urethane busings made for something else... that might take some time and may not be worth it.

[agrimmitt]

Here is what I used and did; everything works well together. Road ride is tighter and solid. ER bushing made a little noise at first, but not a issue. Check my Garage if you wish: 83sc Clone.

Lowered, 1.5 camber, Turbo's and bump, Tarett Eng>Front/Rear bars, camber stut, Bilsteins, Elephant Racing PolyBronze bushings front & rear. Car was corner balanced after completion of front end upgrades.
Hope it helps
Art