Rear sway bar drop link replacement question

[mbintx]

It appears one of my rear sway bar drop link bushings has vaporized (item 6 in the illustration). Rather than replacing that bushing I'm think about adding aftermarket rear drop links. My question is: what do I do with the rear hinge pin (item 7 in the illustration below). Does it pull out? It seems that all aftermarket drop links are bolted in at the top (where the hinge pin now resides). But it doesn't appear to be threaded.
What am I missing?


Car in question is a '74 911. Thanks!

[boyt911sc]

I have not seen or known anyone able to remove this hinge pin short of cutting it. I replaced my '77 trailing arms with later SC- Carrera trailing arms, plus sway bar, and drop links (#9). I believe this hinge pin(#6) was pressed fit(?) into the trailing arm.

Tony

[Mahler9th]

+1 on this... I have never seen anyone mess with this pin. I suppose you could cut the pins off, but I am not sure what you'd be left with for drop link attachment.

I think that pin may be fixed with an adhesive-- I am sure someone else may chime in and confirm or refute that.

Quite a few aftermarket sway bar set ups can use use the spring plate as an attachment point for the drop link.

The SmartRacing Products/Jerry Woods rear bar and the Tarett are excellent choices for the 911. Tarett sell a set of drop links that I think can attach either to the bananas (for cars with a nutsert in the arms), or to the spring plates.

For a street car, I'd just get new bushings. For a car where corner balancing is done and important, I'd get an aftermarket bar, or a later bar and a set of Tarett drop links.

For my 1975-based race car, I fabbed up a set of adjustable drop links that work with the pin-- will try to take a picture and post it. My drop links use the factory cup bushing, or can be attached to the spring plate.

I will be selling my bar (a factory 21 mm) and the drop links in the classifieds soon. I don't run a rear sway bar anymore.

I will likely buy an aftermarket bar to keep on hand for situations where front adjustment is not ideal.

[mbintx]

Ah, thanks. I was hoping to replace the current drop links (which don't look very sturdy) with something like item #9 in the parts diagram. I guess that's not possible for a pre-78 model.

[Mahler9th]

The drop links that work with the ball-type attachment seem to work just fine in my experience. The little plastic cups need to be replaced from time to time and are not very expensive.

The other style drop link, shown in the drawing above as #9, would not have any way easy of connecting to the earlier style ARB, so your idea was never going to work without some modification on that end as well.

What I did was buy a later style ARB, and then fabbed up adjustable drop links to connect to the balls. I also created a version to attach to the spring plates. I sold my earlier style bar to another participant in these forums.

I will be selling my later-style bar in the classifieds soon. It is a 21 mm factory bar, two which I have added a couple of extra adjustment holes. I will also be selling my custom drop links.

[Knockdown]

If you decide to just replace item 6, insert the bushing into the drop link open end first, get as much of the bushing started and then pry the remaining part in with a set of pliers. Verify you have the correct orientation before you do this. I drilled a small hole in the back of the bushing to let the air escape when pressing the bushing/drop link onto the ball/trailing arm using a large C clamp.