Pale Rider
09-14-2007, 02:25 PM
Recently I put on ST Sway bars, front and back. Thought I’d share my experience.
This is my thread discussing the different brands/thicknesses.
http://www.lxforums.com/board/showthread.php?t=70495
I’m a pretty experienced mechanic, (and I installed my SRT suspension myself), but I was a little bit intimidated about dropping the rear cradle. Mostly because I was concerned I wouldn’t get it to line up right, and then need an alignment, and then, have THAT go wrong. But I solved that problem, as you’ll see below.
I decided I wanted to be able to lube these bars in the future, so I modded the bushings to allow a grease fitting. I’ll also show that below.
First, I had to lift the car.
Obviously you want to have the car on a level surface, with a block/chock in front and back of EACH front wheel.
And be sure to slightly loosen the lug nuts, before the car is too high.
You can’t use ramps under the rear wheels, because the wheels need to come off.
I first lifted the car with a floor jack, in this location – NOT the rear dif…
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/7car7/Cars/Magnum%20Tech%20Pics/JackingPoint.jpg
…just enough to get one tire off the ground. Then, I put a ramp under the factory approved lift point with a 2x4. (circle shaped bump).
I then went to the other side, moving the floor jack, and did the same thing. I repeated this several times, until the car was lifted high enough. It’s slow going back and forth, but I feel better about doing it in small steps, rather than having the car teetering on one side.
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/7car7/Cars/Magnum%20Tech%20Pics/Lifted.jpg
I happen to have a Mopar trailer hitch, so I decided to put a jack stand under it too. I did this because when lifting the car only from the “lifting point”, it unloads the front wheels more than I liked, since those points are so far ahead of the rear wheels. It would be nice if those of you without a hitch would somehow put a jack stand up next to your exhaust, just to put more pressure on the front wheels (to keep them in their chocks better).
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/7car7/Cars/Magnum%20Tech%20Pics/ExtraJack.jpg
Once the car is in the air, you will just follow the directions supplied with your sway bars.
I wanted to be sure to get my rear cradle back in the same position as it was before. I really didn’t want the hassle of an alignment, so this is what I did. I found a very short pencil, about 2 inches long, and marked the underside of the car body.
Using the cradle rear mounts as a guide, just hold the pencil flat and vertical against the mount, and trace on to the car’s sheet metal underside.
(I’m not sure if other color cars are this light underneath, if not, you may need to use a colored pencil, or a sharpened grease pencil)
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/7car7/Cars/Magnum%20Tech%20Pics/Alignment.jpg
Once this is done, re-assembly is very easy. Just raise the cradle back up, and lightly tighten the bolts. Then, use your pencil, and just touch it to the line you previously made, checking the rear and sides of your line – both sides. If it doesn’t line up, move the cradle! You will need to loosen the cradle enough be able to move it, but not too much that you make the alignment mark in-accurate.
I also wanted to make these bushings lube-able. I first had to make a little cutting tool. This can be seen in the lower left of the next photo. It was just a thumb screw I had laying around. I cut it with a grinder, so it had about a 3/16” cutting surface. I then put this into my drill press, and milled a notch all the way around the inside of the bushing, about 3/32” deep. This is for the grease to make its way around the bar. Then I had to figure out a place to put the grease fitting, that it would not interfere with putting the bolts back in, and being able to access when installed. This ended up being towards the rear of the bushing, but high enough to R+R the bolt. I used ¼-28 thread size grease fittings. Unfortunately I bought 45° fittings, I should have waited and found 90° fittings. I will have to change these out to make them work with a grease gun. I then drilled a hole through the bushing, where the grease fitting goes, to line up with the groove that I previously milled out on the inside.
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/7car7/Cars/Magnum%20Tech%20Pics/BushingMod.jpg
As far as the front bar, that was very easy, as others have said. I did not even remove the wheels. I also put in grease fittings there too, and I drilled a ¾ hole in the aluminum heat shields for the fitting to come through.
So, the point of all this is to show you that pretty much anyone can do the rear sway bars, as long as you have a way to get the car in the air. It is time consuming, it took me about 6 hours to do the rear bar alone. But part of that time was modding the bushings, and over an hour of that was just lifting and lowering the car. That’s not something you want to rush – take your time please.
:)
This is my thread discussing the different brands/thicknesses.
http://www.lxforums.com/board/showthread.php?t=70495
I’m a pretty experienced mechanic, (and I installed my SRT suspension myself), but I was a little bit intimidated about dropping the rear cradle. Mostly because I was concerned I wouldn’t get it to line up right, and then need an alignment, and then, have THAT go wrong. But I solved that problem, as you’ll see below.
I decided I wanted to be able to lube these bars in the future, so I modded the bushings to allow a grease fitting. I’ll also show that below.
First, I had to lift the car.
Obviously you want to have the car on a level surface, with a block/chock in front and back of EACH front wheel.
And be sure to slightly loosen the lug nuts, before the car is too high.
You can’t use ramps under the rear wheels, because the wheels need to come off.
I first lifted the car with a floor jack, in this location – NOT the rear dif…
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/7car7/Cars/Magnum%20Tech%20Pics/JackingPoint.jpg
…just enough to get one tire off the ground. Then, I put a ramp under the factory approved lift point with a 2x4. (circle shaped bump).
I then went to the other side, moving the floor jack, and did the same thing. I repeated this several times, until the car was lifted high enough. It’s slow going back and forth, but I feel better about doing it in small steps, rather than having the car teetering on one side.
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/7car7/Cars/Magnum%20Tech%20Pics/Lifted.jpg
I happen to have a Mopar trailer hitch, so I decided to put a jack stand under it too. I did this because when lifting the car only from the “lifting point”, it unloads the front wheels more than I liked, since those points are so far ahead of the rear wheels. It would be nice if those of you without a hitch would somehow put a jack stand up next to your exhaust, just to put more pressure on the front wheels (to keep them in their chocks better).
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/7car7/Cars/Magnum%20Tech%20Pics/ExtraJack.jpg
Once the car is in the air, you will just follow the directions supplied with your sway bars.
I wanted to be sure to get my rear cradle back in the same position as it was before. I really didn’t want the hassle of an alignment, so this is what I did. I found a very short pencil, about 2 inches long, and marked the underside of the car body.
Using the cradle rear mounts as a guide, just hold the pencil flat and vertical against the mount, and trace on to the car’s sheet metal underside.
(I’m not sure if other color cars are this light underneath, if not, you may need to use a colored pencil, or a sharpened grease pencil)
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/7car7/Cars/Magnum%20Tech%20Pics/Alignment.jpg
Once this is done, re-assembly is very easy. Just raise the cradle back up, and lightly tighten the bolts. Then, use your pencil, and just touch it to the line you previously made, checking the rear and sides of your line – both sides. If it doesn’t line up, move the cradle! You will need to loosen the cradle enough be able to move it, but not too much that you make the alignment mark in-accurate.
I also wanted to make these bushings lube-able. I first had to make a little cutting tool. This can be seen in the lower left of the next photo. It was just a thumb screw I had laying around. I cut it with a grinder, so it had about a 3/16” cutting surface. I then put this into my drill press, and milled a notch all the way around the inside of the bushing, about 3/32” deep. This is for the grease to make its way around the bar. Then I had to figure out a place to put the grease fitting, that it would not interfere with putting the bolts back in, and being able to access when installed. This ended up being towards the rear of the bushing, but high enough to R+R the bolt. I used ¼-28 thread size grease fittings. Unfortunately I bought 45° fittings, I should have waited and found 90° fittings. I will have to change these out to make them work with a grease gun. I then drilled a hole through the bushing, where the grease fitting goes, to line up with the groove that I previously milled out on the inside.
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p156/7car7/Cars/Magnum%20Tech%20Pics/BushingMod.jpg
As far as the front bar, that was very easy, as others have said. I did not even remove the wheels. I also put in grease fittings there too, and I drilled a ¾ hole in the aluminum heat shields for the fitting to come through.
So, the point of all this is to show you that pretty much anyone can do the rear sway bars, as long as you have a way to get the car in the air. It is time consuming, it took me about 6 hours to do the rear bar alone. But part of that time was modding the bushings, and over an hour of that was just lifting and lowering the car. That’s not something you want to rush – take your time please.
:)