Front Sway Bar is the Devil!

[Rot 911]

There is not much I haven't done on a 911 all the way up to an engine rebuild and rear wheel bearing removal. However, this weekend, I encountered the devil by way of replacing the front sway bar bushings. I removed the sway bar as part of my front suspension rebuild. No big deal took me about 10 minutes. On the other hand it took me 2 HOURS and a come-a-long to get that damn thing back in! I'm not sure how the rest of you do it, but I inserted one end of the sway bar into the bushing on one of the A-arms. The I had to use the come-a-long to pull in the other arm and using arms and pushing with feet, along with a lot of cussing, finally got the other end in the bushing. That was only after pushing the bushing out of the A-arm 5 or 6 times. Not a chore I would ever want to do again.

[v9ff]

I feel your pain!!

Actually, my front sway bar STILL isn't in right so I need to redo it. When I finally squeezed the last end in... it pushed part of the bushing out about 1cm at the top. I got so fed up that I'm living with it but I need to fix it soon.

[jbrinkley]

I put some silicone lube on the inside of the bushing, takes a little pulling to get it, but mines been out twice in the last 30 days. I don't know how you'd get it without a little lube
edit, I use dow 111

[safe]

I used abit of lubrication in the bushing. It went in like a charm.
I inserted one end as far as it went and then pushed in the other end by hand (20 mm swaybar). Then I could push back the end that I pushed in to far.

Edit: same as Jerry

[IROC]

Yeah, those 22mm front "under the body" sway bars can induce large amounts of profanity.

Mike

[t.brady]

kurt, i had the same problem. i bent (via hammer and vise) the brackets back to their original shape. applied white lithium grease to the bushings. lined up the holes for the belly pan and sway bar brackets by pulling the sway bar and pushing the pan. i then installed the bolts that hold the belly pan and sway bar brackets, making sure the other bracket holes lined up, then installed the last two bolts. i crossthreaded a hole in the process and had to retap. overall, not fun. this thread has another method of installation, though i didn't try it.

[NoLift911]

Yup - BTDT. I remember laying under the car thinking a metal bar and two rubber bushings - not rocket science.

What a PIA. I installed a RUF 22 mm front sway and it was painful. Making sure the bar is even on both ends is even more fun.

Yes silicone is your friend (that's what she said)...

-Jeff

[Jeff Alton]

Large pry bars, silicone lube and large amounts of beer are all required to do this job!! Oh, and bandaids for your knuckles and beer. Keep the kids in the house unless you want their vocabulary increased in a negative way. You need beer too. Sometimes it helps to raise the a-arms to a position that is close to where they sit when the car is sitting on the ground. You can try moving one or both up with your jack and also try with some beer.

Hope this helps as much as the beer.

Jeff

[surflvr911sc]

Drop one A arm, piece of cake.

[john walker's workshop]

[Noel]

Dropping one a-arm makes it a breeze.

[blue82coupe]

Catca, I don't know about you.... but this job requires... VODKA Dan

[LakeCleElum]

Someone had a post a month or 2 ago about this. They used "turnbuckles" instead of a cum-a-long
I'll see if I can find it....

[LakeCleElum]

Kurt: I found the thread, complete with photos thanks to "TonyTheTarga"
Front suspension squeak

[Jeff Alton]

It actually is not that bad if you either pull one arm off at the front mount of jack them up a little to get a better alignment with the bushing.
Blue82coupe, VODKA may be a better choice..... I just usually have beer around!! I remember the first time I was getting these bars put on an SC that I had, years ago, the shop I took it too could not get it on. They brag about being the best Porsche shop in town! I took it home and half an hour later had it on. I have done this job about 6 or 7 times so I learned a few tricks. However I still cringe a little when a customer asks for this type of work!!

cheers, Jeff

[KobaltBlau]

Originally posted by LakeCleElum
cum-a-long

excuse me?

[Jeff Alton]

Hmmm, valentines slip perhaps?

[beamonk]

I battled with my 22mm for hours one day screaming and cussin' like nobody's business. I had to quit as I felt a stroke coming on. Got up the next morning, it slipped in in about 30 sec. Never have figured that one out.

[surflvr911sc]

It's all in the angle of the dangle, so to speak.

[KobaltBlau]