by RayCarlo » Fri May 16, 2003 5:19 am
Hey,
Well i have done t rear sway bar installs, one on my solara and one on a friend's camry, and what i recommend is to buy some penetrating oil (wd-40 or something like that, there is another brand that a lot of people have been raving about but i'm not sure what it is) and spray the endlink nuts in advance and spray every other day or something like that. Getting the nut off requires using a hex wrench to keep the link from turning and then using another wrench to turn the bolt off, i found this to be the most difficult part of the install since when i did it the hex part of the endlink ended up getting rounded, when this happened i got the nut off by getting some small pliers and holding the part in place next to the rubber boot part on the outside of the link and then using the wrench to turn the nut off, but you have to be careful here not to damage the boot. When you get the 4 bolts (2 bolts on each side of the swaybar that hold it onto the car) and 2 nuts(one on each endlink) just slide the sway bar out, it's easier to slide it out from the right side of the car, and this might take some time too, you'll have to twist and turn the bar a bit to get it out, when you get the old bar off just slide the new one in also from the right side. If you want to make it even easier, you can unbold the back part of your exhaust, which will make removing the old sway bar out and installing the new one, but i think most people just did it with the exhaust bolted in. To solve the squeeking problem, as i grew tired of greasing and regreasing, i used some plumbers tape and wrapped it a few times around the sway bar where it would be inside the bushing, and then used some white litium grease and was bery generous with it, grease everything, the swaybar, bushing and the bracket. I did this about 6 months ago and no more squeeking. Before using the teflon plumbers tape i had to grease the bushing once every month or so. In order to completely install the sway bar the weight of the car has to be on the wheels so after you jack up the car and remove the old swaybar, slide in the new one and bolt in the 4 bolts and then you'll have to lower the car a bit to put some of the car's weight on the wheels to connect the endlinks to the swaybar (the link won't reach the swaybar with the car jacked up). Then just tighten all the bolts and nuts. Well hope this helps, sorry so long.
Ray