'73 2.0 swaybars to '74 car

[peter carroll]

It's me again. I have a 73 2.0 with swaybars. The car has major rust and eveything on it is going on my structurally sound '74. Is putting the bars on the '74 a good idea or is it a pain? Is there a kit to help. In addition , I have a '70 parts car and noticed the front suspension has the metal u-shaped bracket already mounted on it. Would it make sense to use the '70"wishbones" , or whatever you call them, from the '70 car? Thanks, Pete in Maryland

[SteveStromberg]

You may find that the Ball joints are not the same
Ball Joint, 914 1970-mid '72,
A-341-049-00

Ball Joint, 914 mid 1972 - 76,
C-341-049-01
Steve

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

A front sway-bar is a very worthwhile thing on any 914.

You can use the Weltmeister sway bar mounting kit (use the "tank removal required" one; the other one is not very good IMHO) to mount a stock sway bar as well as a Weltmeister one.

Rather, the "nut plate" on the inside of the fender wall is what you use. You'd use the stock outer plate and bushing and such. You'll likely have to do some modification to the rails at the bottom of the tank compartment (see the sway bar install article for details).

I think it should all bolt together. Remember to use the SAE bolts, because Weltmeister doesn't use metric stuff. (I hate that... Grr.) Verify that the stock outer plate has its holes in the same place as the WM nut-plate before you cut!!

--DD

[mike95125]

You can use the newer or older ball joints on any of the "wish bones". The difference is in the strut tube bottom couplers. The newer ones use a pin. You can cross all of the parts over though. Good luck!

[Will98D]

I'm going to make the same install soon. If you want metric, anything special about the WM nut-plate, or can you just make your own plate and tack on the three metric nuts? Can you use those bearing kits available to replace the stock bushings? What do people think of those? I just had a post last week about stock bushings versus urethane, but have also seen the bearings available for the swaybar.

For the attachments to the lower control arms, is there a kit available? Mine don't have a u-bracket for the drop-link >> DISREGARD - just saw the part available at Pelican and the pic in the article. I assume the WM u-tabs will fit stock drop links.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

You can weld up your own nut-plates, but I think it's the inner ones that have a "pipe" on the inner bore that supports the edges of the hole in the fender well. I'm not quite sure which piece has it, though... My memory isn't quite what it used to be, I guess.

--DD