Dumb question of the hour !
 

Droped the engine last year to fix pesky oil leak. Turned out to be bad oil pressure sender next to the Thermostadt. Anyway, put everything back together. Yesterday, happen to be walking up to the car, from a distance, and noticed that I could see the rear sway bar and its bushings sorta hanging down, but attatched under the car. Never acutally noticed it before, never looked. Question...How do I know exactly... if I put the sway bar back in right side up ????

Are the rear sway bars of a '77 different than a '72? I mean, on my car, I don't see how anyone could possibly install the bar in any manner other than the right one.

The early '67 thru '77 rear bars are flat -- no droop or kink in the bars! Do you have both ball socket connectors snapped onto the ball ends on the control arms?

I don't know about a '72 but way back, when I bought the '77 and took it in to for a pre-inspection the mech. said it was in upside down and unbolted it and turned it right side up in 5 mins. Apparently it is possible to reverse it. I was looking for some side-view photos on the bb to check it out but, so far no luck. It just looks weird and now it's buggin' the @#$t out of me. Yes... both end bushings are in and connected and the inner ones are bolted to chasis.

I think Warren meant that if you placed this round bar on a flat floor, it would touch the floor the same no matter which side you placed down. Therefore, no "upside down". The ends of my bars are visible from the side of the car, it's just the way the bars are mounted. Visually, the bottom of my sway bar, the end that passes through the bushing, is about 2" below the bottom edge of the spring plate. I really can't understand the mechanic's action...

Perhaps the drop links can be installed upside down? It seems like it would fit but the drop links might hit the body over speedbumps and such.

The rear swaybar on my '88 is plainly visible from beside the car at a distance. Comes down at an angle from forward of the rear wheel and then the drop link goes nearly vertically up from the end. I'm assuming that is what you are seeing if so I think it's fine. Though the first time I noticed it I thought it did seem to really cut down on the clearance under the car, but no problems with that.

You can, in fact, install the drop-links incorrectly on the bar ... but the Delrin sockets would be facing away from the control arms ... and can't be connected.

The bar has a slight declination angle when viewed from the side ... as the following scan from Frere's First Edition shows:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/ultimate...BarAngle-r.jpg

Dumb question of the hour !
 

A friend of mine once told me 'there are no such things as dumb questions – only dumb people who don't ask questions'. Have faith!;)

It's definitely not flat. '77s Targa. All kinds of curvs to it. I remember the hassel getting the new end bushings in. Couldn't keep the sucker straight to the vise.

Probably should clarify. Not necessarily up-side -down but perhaps swung around right to left 180 degrees. Pass. side to drivers side.

I stood 2 ft away from the Mech. when he fliped it so I know it can be done. As a mater of fact, he said the same thing I did, "Ya know, it just doesn't look right". Maybe I'm just going nuts.

I think you can see what I'm talking about on S-Man's lower pic. Follow the 'P' on the rear refector straight down and you can see it. It doesn't quite show as well on the first pic. Still need a low, direct side on shot.

Got to get a Dig. Cam. Gonna get one tonight.

Alan,

The factory bar is DEFINITELY FLAT, and is entirely in one plane as in a basic Cartesian coordinate system, as the factory 'kit' for retrofitting shows below! Perhaps yours isn't stock, or has been damaged by off-road excursions .

http://www.pelicanparts.com/ultimate...llBarKit-r.jpg

For what it's worth,

Here is a pic from the parts diagram for the 77, looks pretty flat.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/ultimate...swaybarpic.jpg

I also went out and eyeballed mine (on my 82), looks exactly like the one in Warren's pic.

Tom

Perhaps our problem is one of communication? "Flat" does NOT mean the bar is not round, does NOT mean it's not bent...it means that if you place the bar on a flat floor, it will be FLAT! ...on the floor! ;)

I gotcha... Yes the "bar" all by itself is flat. I've never seen it from the perspective or configuration of having the shackels off the ends of the bar (#14 on emcon5's pic).

I think Early_S is right and simple logic would agree, in that, if the shackels were installed backwards, the Sockets on the shackels would be improperly angled to the ball joint and the two parts would not fit together.

But...... it still doesn't explain how the Mech. fliped it and re-installed it and why it's hanging down so low. Still looking for some pics.

Alan911,
Perchance, if the your sway bar ends are bent so they are not flat when laid on the ground (and thus not swappable, end-to-end), is there a chance you have an aftermarket sway bar like a Weltmeister or other? The sway bar drop links will be different from the above pics as well. I don't have an image to upload, but if you have any Porsche mailorder catalog you can find and compare.

Just wondering,
Sherwood Lee
http://members.rennlist.org/911pcars
www.seinesystems.com

Not sure, but I think I figured it out.... I'm running 205-60-15's wheels and tires all around.

Really, really puny and small when compared to most of you guys. There is a lot of "space" between the "front" edge of the rear tire and the beginning of the rocker panel. As such, I can see more of the sway bar and shackels than most of you.

I've come to the conclusion that its a stock sway bar, it's flat, it looks exactly like all the diagrams, and its probably on correctly and the whole thing is probably an optical perversion manufactured by my little brain.

I guess the fix is easy.....just go with flares and some P-7's or P-8's on the rear and hide it all. Oh well....