Rear sway bar bracket broken, help!

bklyn · 03-15-2009, 12:23 PM

Gents as I was checking around under my 87 911 of course I noticed the pass. side rear sway bar bushing bracket was broken right from the frame. It seems like it rusted away. Is there a bracket that I can purchase? What would be the correct fix? Thanks Lenny

Joe Bob · Joe Bob's Garage

Common.....Pelican sells a replacment part. I think Elephant Racing has an upgrade....

bklyn · 03-15-2009, 12:34 PM

Mike is it called a butterfly bracket?

Gunter · Gunter's Garage

Lenny:
Do both sides while you're at it with the re-enforced version. (The upgraded brackets are welded to the body)

bklyn · 03-15-2009, 12:41 PM

Gunter, thanks I also want to make sure I order the correct bracket. Apprec. the help.

Por_sha911 · Por_sha911's Garage

The old bracket has to be cut off and a new one welded on. Wevo makes the heavy duty one. Do both sides.

p.s. This a common thing that has been discussed many times. The Search button is your friend.

bklyn · 03-15-2009, 12:48 PM

Hey Porsha, thats exactly what I needed, perfect guys thanks!

bklyn · 03-15-2009, 01:47 PM

Gents, just thinking, I am not a welder, Any good suggestions, what do you think someone wouls charge for that?

88-diamondblue · 03-15-2009, 02:01 PM

Do the Wevo and never do it again. I had both sides welded once and then one side broke again. Put the Wevo on and never will have to do it again.
One tip is when you line up the new brackets to be welded have the car sitting on a lift with the weight on the suspension. First time I did this I lined it up with the car on jack stands. The sway bar touched the trans mount after putting the car on the ground. A welder should be able to do it in 1 to 1 1/2 hours labor. Most time consuming part is grinding the old ones off.

bklyn · 03-15-2009, 02:05 PM

Mike good pics, I am going to order them today and have a welder do the rest.

Por_sha911 · Por_sha911's Garage

Go to a bodyshop guy and he'll do the job for less than $100 labor

sc_rufctr · 03-15-2009, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 88-diamondblue

Do the Wevo and never do it again. I had both sides welded once and then one side broke again. Put the Wevo on and never will have to do it again.
One tip is when you line up the new brackets to be welded have the car sitting on a lift with the weight on the suspension. First time I did this I lined it up with the car on jack stands. The sway bar touched the trans mount after putting the car on the ground. A welder should be able to do it in 1 to 1 1/2 hours labor. Most time consuming part is grinding the old ones off.

That looks bomb proof...

bklyn · 03-15-2009, 02:28 PM

Thats an idea, I have a reliable guy who did my wifes Boxster when she backed into my sons brand new Dodge Ram right in the driveway$$

88-diamondblue · 03-15-2009, 07:21 PM

The other thing I did after grinding off the old mounts was to use zinc weld through primer to prevent rust. Then hit again after the welding is done. The primer is about $8 a can.

Gordo2 · Gordo2's Garage

Here's a good thread on installing the Wevo

Another great WEVO product: rear swaybar mounts

88-diamondblue,

Are you saying you didn't have the Wevo RARB mount correctly positioned when with your first mounting? If you did it like Tyson did in the linked thread - assembling the bar to the mount and holding it firmly in place with a jack as you tack up the mount, would that have solved the issue?

Asking because I'm a couple of weeks away from doing the Wevo mount upgrade on my car, and thought I would do it like in Tyson's thread. Not sure how I would weight the suspension as you recommend.

Thanks, Gordo

arrivederci · 09:01 PM

Not sure what kind of clean-up you'll need since yours tore off. But when grinding/cutting the factory ones off, they're not welded on particularly well. There's a bead along the longitudinal seam and then a little done on each side. See the following pictures for what mine looked like after I cut them off along with a blurry installed pic.

It isn't too hard to get it clamped in the right position...the old mount's location was pretty obvious. The sway bar moved smoothly afterward with no binding. Also, I too used weld-thru primer.

Flieger · Flieger's Garage

Is that your 911SC or your early car? I have heard that the WEVO mounts do not fit very well on early 911s. I have a 1971 911S with Weltmeister front and rear sway bars. I just had my passenger side factory sway bar mount break but I have seen photos of early cars with WEVOs where the sway bar hits the ground during hard cornering. I am planning to have the factory mounts repaired and gusseted by a pro Porsche shop.

88-diamondblue · 09:36 PM

Second time around I just put a stack of 2x6's under the tires to allow me to get under the car and get the mounts in the right place and were tack welded into place. I did use a jack to hold it in place, it was I just placed it wrong with the suspension in droop. Same procedure the second time around but could see where the sway was located next to the trans mount with suspension in compression. I then unbolted the sway bars and the welds were finished. The 87-89 used the aluminum trans mount which the sway bars had a bend to go around (correct me if I am wrong) the mount. I moved the mounts about 1/2" from the first time. It was not as easy to see where the others had been.
The guy who helped with this is a magician with metal, the old mounting locations were perfectly smooth after he was done. He even took these off and we reused them. He reground the taper and I could not tell they were anything but first time job.

arrivederci · 03-16-2009, 05:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flieger

Is that your 911SC or your early car? I have heard that the WEVO mounts do not fit very well on early 911s. I have a 1971 911S with Weltmeister front and rear sway bars. I just had my passenger side factory sway bar mount break but I have seen photos of early cars with WEVOs where the sway bar hits the ground during hard cornering. I am planning to have the factory mounts repaired and gusseted by a pro Porsche shop.

That's my SC but I have them on my '72 as well. The smart racing bars (the arms actually) do look close to the ground on the '72, but I don't think it would hit when on track. Off track could be another story.

I -think- the lack of lower sill trim and the 205/50 R15 tires is what makes it look so low. Moving up to a 55 or 60 series would obviously give the sway bar a little more clearance.

stevef · stevef's Garage

I just did mine yesterday on my 87. Don't know if I needed to but I decided to remove the DME. One of the threads I read suggested it as a good idea. Theoretically with a good grounded welder it shouldn't make a difference but to be sure I did. The welding part was the easy bit. If you have to take it to a shop the cost is in the set up and any other precautions (like DME) etc and getting any oil lines out of the way.