Adding rear sway bar to vehicle never equipped with one.

[rich_e777]

My Cutlass has the aux. springs or dampers and never had a rear sway bar. The holes for the inner mounting arms are already there but they are not tapped. But they do go completely through the frame allowing for the longer bolts from the dog bone engine mounts to work. Just have to drill out the brackets so they fit. The single vertical bolt hole I'll probably leave alone, the two longer ones should be more than enough to hold it steady. These bushings are 22mm and I`ll be using the "rear sway bar repair kit" from Autozone for a `96 Monte Carlo for the inner mount and grabbed some Energy Suspension greasable?, greaseable?, grease able? (spellchecker fail? I thought this is a word?) 22mm outer bushings and the new brackets. Sway Bar is from the '96 MC and IIRC is the largest found on W-bodies from factory.

 

I cannot remember if their was a binding or scraping issue with this bar or the Addco one but I will get this one on, put the car through some corners to get a feel for it and I'll see what happen. I've got to get back to the yard for the bolts and then I'll see about getting the bar installed without developing a need for an alignment. I remember to get the bar off the MC it was up on blocks and I dropped one of the rear struts to get it out. I assume if a scribe a mark around my rear strut mount and reinstall it(or the new KYB assembly) in the same place then the alignment will be fine.

[intern8tion9l]

People have had a little trouble with the aadco

[19Cutlass94]

The Addco bar (version 1) scrapes. The version 2 was suppose to be better and not do this. (However I think it still does) but it doesn't require that much work to fix the issue. I just completely took out the aux springs.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone

[pitzel]

How'd this work out for you? Will the dogbone bolts really fit in place of the 2 x 10mm headed bolts on each side?

 

Any noticeable difference once you got it all on?

[rich_e777]

How'd this work out for you? Will the dogbone bolts really fit in place of the 2 x 10mm headed bolts on each side?

 

Any noticeable difference once you got it all on?

 

It didn't work, it was a complete disaster. Such a mess Obamas approval rating dropped.

 

I actually haven't put it on yet, been busy working and diagnosing existing problems. Im not sure what difference it will be as I will be installing it now with a coil over conversion coupled with an already installed rear tower strut brace so everything will be feeling different. Now that I think about it I still need to find some inserts for the inner mounts. I hate leaving opened threads like this, it slipped my mind.

 

I do recall seeing the difference in the mounting holes, and I thought if anything to drill straight through and use the dogbone bolts and nuts(the longest ones 4x). I saw no reason why that wouldn't work.

 

I just thought that monoleaf I take off might make one hell of a catapult

[pitzel]

I was able to extract one of the blind rivet nuts from a junkyard car. Tried the local bolt suppliers, nothing. But there are many vendors on Aliexpress. So just a matter of measuring, ordering, and waiting a month to get them from China.

[vipmiller803]

I added a sway bar a few days ago to my buick. It had no sway bar stock so it also did not have the tapped nuts inside the frame. Driver side had holes going through the frame. Passenger side did not. Drilled my own there. Had to cut out a small section (maybe 2 1/2" by 3/4"?) of the wheel well to get a drill straight in there. If you have a long enough drill bit that would not be necessary.

For hardware I just used grade 8 5/16th 4" bolts. I did not leave the third bolt alone, though. I ran a corner from the inner part of the frame/new bolt and mounted it via speed nut. I went with 3/8th 1" bolts here only because I had 3/8th speed nuts laying around. The speed nuts went on the sway bar bracket itself. The corner started out being a longer corner that was made for shelving. I can see how using that can be frowned upon, but the steel was thick and strong and it is better than leaving that bolt alone (at least in my opinion). It was quiet the PITA to get that corner fabricated with the right lengths but a good measuring job goes a long way here.

Since I am already here I will just give you the rest of what might now amount to way more than my two cents.

I wound up with a 16 mm bar out of a Lumina, but I know you are looking at the 7/8th one. With pulling a used bar, be sure both frame mounts move freely around it, otherwise corrosion may have eaten through part of the bar. I went with the used links rather than the repair kit. Cheap, I know, but the upper bushings were still solid. The bottom ones and the knuckle ones are a different story, though. Loose and stretched is putting it nicely.

Another word about the knuckle/strut bolts bushing caps. Be sure the ones you get are the right size holes. I am sure you know of the sizes because you are redoing your whole suspension, but for someone just adding a bar, getting the undersized bolt holes can mean an extra trip to the yard. For me this did entail taking caps from a GP and ditching the Lumina caps.

 

If you can ignore the overwhelming ripe crustiness, here is a picture of my driver side before the bar went on:


Miller

[pitzel]

Yeah I got mine installed as well. All stock hardware, pulled from a FE3/LQ1 Cutlass Supreme, a newer one, I think a 1995. Had to find blind rivet nuts to fit into the holes. That was the biggest hassle. Oh, and they changed the size of the holes on the strut to bar mount (made them smaller), so I had to grind them out to fit the bigger strut to knuckle bolts used on the earlier ones (24mm bolted ones).

 

Don't really notice much of a difference though, but I am using the Moog spring pads + the auxiliary springs + the bar + new KYB rear struts. Put the bar on last. Obviously replacing the struts and doing the spring pads was a much larger improvement overall.

[vipmiller803]

Yea I did mention that in my post there about the strut-to-bar bushing caps having different sizes.

 

As far as the resulting performance, to be honest, I did feel it a little, but I quickly got used to it. I have a steel rear leaf spring with the moog pads and Monroe struts, so the handling will be different than yours regardless, but I think the bar mostly helped with mid-range to high speed maneuvers only. It may be the bushing slack being just too much for the low speed turns or it could be the leaf spring doing all the work, but for any turns below 35mph, except for extremely harsh swerves, I felt very little difference. However, higher speeds are a little different. There is one expressway exit ramp that I could not easily take at 60 before but now I can. I know I can still upgrade to a 21mm bar off some Monte Carlos, and stiffer bushings might go a long way, but I am happy with it for a good long while.

[rich_e777]

I didn't think the size of the bar to strut bolts would have changed, that is something I really cannot recall now and I don't have those parts here ATM. I'll have to get under the car with parts before I can really understand where you are coming from vipmiller803, Im a hands on visual sort of person. Could you guys elaborate on the strut to bar bushing cap? Its the first time ever seeing that term and from what I can remember all of the rear sway bar parts I have I'm not sure what that part would be. Is that the bracket that holds the bushing and outer mounts the sway bar to the strut?

 

I to gauge suspension performance using exit ramps and one particular S curve that is just a blast to hit at 55-60 mph.

 

Thanks for the insight guys, life keeps pushing the whole project back further and further.

[vipmiller803]

Could you guys elaborate on the strut to bar bushing cap? Its the first time ever seeing that term and from what I can remember all of the rear sway bar parts I have I'm not sure what that part would be. Is that the bracket that holds the bushing and outer mounts the sway bar to the strut?

 

That would be a yes. Please do pardon my apparently improper terminology creation. I was just calling them what I thought they should be called. It is the piece holding the end of the sway bar to the strut, going under the strut stud nuts and over the bushing. There are different mounting hole sizes there so just be sure to grab the right ones, or you might just have to adjust the hole size yourself like pitzel did.

 

I know what you mean about life pushing the project further behind... So many projects, so little time.