So, uh, about that gen 1.5 rear sway bar...

[white4d96]

...I found out the hard way it DOES NOT work in the 1G sedans (or at least my Grand Prix.)

 

Problem: the sway bar bolts up just fine, takes some tweaking with a ratchet strap or three to fit, but that's about it. The problem lies in setting the car on the ground and hitting bumps. The bend in the bar to clear the spare tire well is not big enough and on every good bump the sway bar contacts the spare well. This resulted in the bolts for both dogbones (the chassis mounts on the sway bar) snapping. For now I have taken the sway bar out completely (350lb rear coilovers plus the monoleaf make it a non-issue for now) but I am going to try and find a way to correct this issue. For others' reference it is the base '96 sway bar out of a Lumina, I believe 1/2", and I was using home-welded cage brackets.

[urbex]

I watched BXX and Matt put one in his GTP this weekend.

[Psych0matt]

I've had no problems It took a bit of work to get it into position, but that was mostly because we had it in backwards first we had to put a jack under the rear knuckles and lift it up a bit, but it went on fine after. I have some rubbing somewhere, but I don't know if it's the sway bar or not, didn't cause any issues, just annoyance.

 

Do you have 2nd gen rear knuckles? I should ask that

[white4d96]

I do not, and that could possibly be the issue. I'll try and throw it on when I swap the lat arms and see what happens.

[Psych0matt]

let me know what you find out

[Crazy K]

I have the same bar installed in one car, and am soon going to do another. I cannot tell you without pictures if you did something wrong... possibly installed upside down?????

[white4d96]

Unless the bend in the bar doesn't go by the spare tire well, I don't think I did it upside down.

[AWeb80]

you have the bar in upside down. That is my first thought.

 

.....and you have C/O's AND the stock leaf in?

[white4d96]

The stock leaf will be coming out. I didn't have enough time to pull my whole subframe to get the leaf out and swap lateral arms when I put the CO's in. The leaf is trashed anyways so it does next to nothing.

[AWeb80]

the leaf comes out EASY. just remove a strut from one side, loosen the lat link bolts on the hub and pull outboard from the bottom of the hub and the leaf will fall out of it. Then removed the two center brackets that hold it to the frame and it comes out. 30 minutes from jacking up the car to finished.

[white4d96]

The bolts holding the shackles in on my car are rusted on big time and will have to be cut off.

[Psych0matt]

after what BXX and I did, I'm guessing you did it backwards

[white4d96]

Possible. I'll have to play with it and find out

[GutlessSupreme]

I'm a little confused as to how you guys got that bar to fit... IIRC it's an 1" longer than the first gen bars. When I was going to install mine, there was no way that it would have not hit the rear struts.

[BXX]

You need Gen 2 arms, period.

 

Matts was a fight, as his arms are made to Gen 1 length IIRC but we were able to squeeze it in, not the most ideal, but I dont think his it hitting anything.

[Crazy K]

I installed mine utilizing a ratchet strap to compress the swaybar width wise. Once the bar was in position I slowly let the tension off and the ends of the bar slid into the bushings to fit. It is an inch too wide, but I also used the smallest of the gen 1.5 bars(somewhere between 1/2" to 5/8"????) and it rides against the bushings (hence why making them caged is a good idea). this is on a stock suspension gen 1 94 CS.

[white4d96]

That's what I did too Ken. Before I used the cage brackets the bar popped both bushings out within a day. After the cage brackets it worked great for a week until this issue happened.

 

I may try reinstalling it with new grade 8 bolts and see if it does it again. Bolts are cheap enough.

[Crazy K]

pics of failure???