New Rear Sway Bar Bushings

[BER]

This afternoon I replaced the drop links and sway bar bushings on the rear of my 1984 911. You can see from the picture, the Bentley Manual only briefly mentions the rear bushings, but it does give the torque settings for the various bolts.

The job is actually very intuitive once you visualize what needs to be done. I put my car on my drive-on lift and lifted it to a comfortable working height. I first loosened all the bolts that would be removed for the job. I wanted to be sure there was no pre-load on the bar; there was not.

I removed the lower drop link bolt, followed by the bolts holding the two bushing brackets to the car. That allowed me to remove the bar from the car. The last bolts were the ones on the top of the drop links that go into the body of the car.

I cleaned up the sway bar with some engine degreaser and a scotch brite pad. I cleaned off the threads of all the bolts. Then it was time to install the new drop links and the new rubber bushes on the sway bar. Before installing the rubber bushes around the bar, I smeared the inside of the bushes with some lithium grease.

I loosely mounted the tops of the drop links to the body of the car. Next, I hand tightened the two brackets that hold the rubber bushes to the sway bar. Last, I hand tightened the bolt/nut at the lower end of the drop link. Everything went together without a problem.

Then, alternating from side to side, I tightened down all the bolts till they were snug. The final step was to torque all the bolts. The top and bottom bolts on the drop links are torqued to 61 ft lbs. The bolts for the two bushing brackets are torqued to 18 ft lbs.

Total time for the job was an hour max. This was the first step in my refresh of the rear end. Next will be Elephant Racing’s QC Swing Plates, 29 MM t-bars and poly bronze swing plate bushings. I did the rear wheel bearings about a year ago.

Here are some photos of the job. The bushings in the old drop links are toast! The rubber bushes around the sway bar don’t look to bad; they may have been replaced when I had the reinforced brackets welded in about 15 years ago.

[aigel]

Nice, but you should have also upgraded the sway bar bracket.

https://www.pelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/smart/more_info.cgi?pn=WVO-RARB&catalog_description=WEVO%2520RARB%2520Console%2520 (2%2520per%2520car%252C%2520sold%2520individually) %252C%2520911%252F911%2520Turbo%2520(1972-89

It is okay, you probably still remember the torque specs!

Probably don't have to do the reinforcement if you keep stock suspension. What does the tech board brain trust say?

G

[BER]

The brackets were reinforced about 15 years ago, but not with the Wevo part. Not sure what parts the tech used at the time. The car is street use only, so i think I’m covered.

Thanks for the input.

[Mr. Merk]

You should be good with the reinforcements, but I ripped my original mounts using 200tdw 225s. The Tarrett mounts have held up well against 245 R888Rs for the last two years.