Q. What's the missing link here. Re, sway bar bushing replacment

[930yyc]

Q. What am I missing here which is causing me from being an inch away from success?

Mission: replacing four front sway bar bushings
Vehicle: 1986 911 Carrera ROW.

Basic situation
- removed two bolts holding cross member
- crossmember as low as it appears to go
- insert new bushing no problem
- greased one end and inserted all the way up to the first bend

Problem
- other end is a sway bar width away from going in.

Do I need to disconnect the two bolts holding the steering rack or something? There is significant tension on the crossmember. It does not drop more than about an inch with the bolts out.

Any advice appreciated, I've combed the Bentley, 101 Projects and the search function for the missing voodoo.

thank you,


-Ivan

[930yyc]

I'll disconnect the bottom of the strut from the A-Arm, see if that yields anything.

I wedged in a few large cold chisels but it's still not quite enough.

[randywebb]

I would have posted but I was confused by your description.

I didn't have to do anything like that when I swapped my crossbars - that was the front suspension cross-member between the two A-arms. Is that what you are trying to drop?

[930yyc]

I'm trying to reattach one side of an undercar 22mm sway bar.
Ran out of steam for today and will try again in the morning.

The procedure indicated that just removing the two cross member bolts should provide enough clearance to get both sides of the sway bar in the bushings.

One thing I didn't do was jack up both control arms at the same time to put them parallel to the ground to see if that would give me the combined cm or so remaining clearance I need to get the tough side in w/o a lot of binding on the new bushing.

I managed to gain extra leverage with a clamp but am just a little short of victory.

[Bryan A.]

I had the same issue. I wrapped form wire between the bar arms a short distance from the ends of the bar. I used two small clamps to keep the wire from slipping down the bar, inserted a screwdriver into the winds of wire and wound them up aka Spanish windlass. Think archery bow. It builds a fair amount of tension so be cautious.