1988 Front sway bar question

[Evans968]

On my 1988 G-50 Carrera,3.2, I have replaced front bushings with Rebel Racing set, new ball joints, new rubber sway bar bushings. Need help now with techniques to re-install stock sway bar. So far, can only get sway bar into it's control arm rubber bushings with one control arm disconnected at the bumper end and cross bar, ball joint disconnected from strut assembly. But then, after connecting ball joint pin to lower strut assembly, cannot get control arm with bushing into place in cross member. Have lubed the sway bushings with soapy water, so there's little resistance. Sway bar popped out on one side, so now I'm back to square one. There must be a trick here. Really hate to knock that ball joint pin loose at this point.

Any thoughts? Thanks

[DRACO A5OG]

You need car ramps and place the front of the car on top of them to take the load off the sway bar. It will barely fit but with a little persistence it will finally pop in place.

A 4 post lift or alignment table works best, heck even a dugged out pit :-)

[Jesse16]

Yeah, its a difficult part to get in. What Draco says and/or read a bunch posts where others talk about how they got it done. I did mine several years ago and it was difficult and not for young ears to hear me swear. If you had to do it with any regularity you would ditch it and go through the body. I can remember no specific tricks other than lube.

[DRACO A5OG]

Others have used tie down straps but again with load off it will go in. Your larger sways makes it a bit more difficult than my original smaller sways. But I uped to your size

[Evans968]

Thanks, at least I know it can be done without taking everything apart again. By "take the load off", do you mean everything off the ground or should it be wheels loaded with car weight? I have it up on jack stands with everything hanging. If the suspension needs to be compressed, could I just jack up each side to compress? Also, I presume the last thing I would do is attach sway bar brackets to cross member, right?

[DRACO A5OG]

Wheel Loaded with car weight.

Either get the car ramps or make them out of 8 X 2 Wood blocks, high enough to get under her.

I do not recommend jacking up the wheels with a jack, very dangerous the car may slip from car jack stands. Compressing one side will still leave one side hanging and load the sway bar.

Remember "anti-sway bar" it works opposite of loaded weight.

[Ayles]

I did this last year, fought with it quite a bit. If I recall correctly i just dropped one A-arm and it slipped right in.

[DRACO A5OG]

^^^ if OEM for your year 82 then it will be much much easier.

[Evans968]

Thanks Draco. Car is up on 4 jack stands, wheels off, tie rods disconnected, one new ball joint inserted and pinned, the other not yet inserted, new T-bars not yet inserted, cross member bolts out except for steering rack bolts, one control arm has Rebel bushings installed and sway bar thru rubber bushing about 3 inches, and the other side (the one I'm trying to shoe horn in) has control arm with Rebel bushings unbolted.
I have two floor jacks, so it would seem that I could raise the control arms to horizontal position safely. Probably ought to fit the other ball joint pin into lower strut first. Does this sound OK?

[DRACO A5OG]

I would do the sway when I can have the wheels on and on ramps for safety.

Just be safe brother this is not a hurry up task.

Be safe Brother,

Jim

[Driven97]

The job sucks, I just did it again yesterday. I was replacing A-arm bushings, so I had the front A-arm mounts off & the cross member loose. I didn't actually remove my bar, but that's the point where I could have.

With everything still loose, I put the two spanner braces in place, and finger started the front bushing bracket bolts in them. I then temporarily put the rear bracket bolts in without the big bash plate and snugged them down. Next pushed up the crossmember, torqued that in place, then put the front brackets in. At this point everything had been forced into the correct position. I torqued the front swaybar bracket bolts, pulled out the rears, and popped the plate on.

I did have to use a small philips screwdriver to help shift a few things onto their bosses, be careful not to damage threads if you do this, and NEVER use bolts to pull something into place.

The first time I tried using a ratchet strap which was a disaster, hours of swearing. I don't expect I'll ever have to do that job again, but the method above was by far the easiest of the 5 or so times I've done it.

Another tip is to grease / soap the swaybar bushings so the bar can slide. Due to the rather stupid angle the bar goes into the arms at, how far it's seated in impacts width.

[old man neri]

You're not trying to put it on upside down are you?

It was a ***** for me. I had a two post lift and I forget exactly what I did but it did involve having one of the a arms out.

[AC78]

I found the tie down (ratchet) strap method worked best for me.
Insert one end of the bar into the mount, then compress the bar by wrapping the strap around the crossmember and the end of the bar you need to get in. You can secure the strap on the bar using hose clamps. This will prevent it from slipping off. By tightening the strap you can line it up with the mount perfectly. Use lots of lube.

[zeusdog]

If you get fed up with installing the stock sway bar, it might be a good excuse to install the Eibach sway bar kit. The front bar uses adjustable drop links, making installation relatively painless.

[AG81]

Originally Posted by Jesse16

Yeah, its a difficult part to get in.................not for young ears to hear me swear.

^

X2 I fought this also in March. It's not easy but doable.

[Evans968]

Thanks to "Old Man Neri", I looked again and was in fact trying it up side down! Duh. Still couldn't get it in so I disconnected the upper strut mount. This plus the already disconnected control arm mounts let me swing the whole assembly into place for an easy fit, then relatively easy re-connection for everything else.
Eibach sway would be great, but my budget was shot on bushings and T-bars.
Thanks for all the input!

[boyt911sc]

Originally Posted by AC78

I found the tie down (ratchet) strap method worked best for me.
Insert one end of the bar into the mount, then compress the bar by wrapping the strap around the crossmember and the end of the bar you need to get in. You can secure the strap on the bar using hose clamps. This will prevent it from slipping off. By tightening the strap you can line it up with the mount perfectly. Use lots of lube.

Evan,

This is my trick for installaing the OEM 22-mm front Carrera sway bar. I am 5’8” and weighs less than 140 lbs. soaked and wet. And 75 years old and could not carry my golf bag without straining my back. So you could imagine how weak I am. Yet, I could install these 22-mm sway bars with ease. I use mechanical force to bend the sway bar like bending a bow (like in bow and arrow).

Similar to the come-along method, I use a 1-ton mechanical chain hoist to bend the sway bar. Insert one end of the sway bar through the rubber bushing. Connect or install one end of the mechanical hoist to it and about 3~4 inches from the other end. Compress the sway bar until the end lines up with the rubber bushing. Guide and release the sway bar. Realign and adjust the sway bar once it is installed. I have installed more than a dozen of these 22-mm Carrera sway bars in SC’s using this simple method. I will be doing one this coming fall for a ‘77S. PM me your email and will send you some pictures of the gizmo.

Tony

[DRACO A5OG]

Originally Posted by Evans968

Thanks to "Old Man Neri", I looked again and was in fact trying it up side down!

Ouch

Glad you got it squared away.