Rear Sway Bar

[pitzel]

Pulled a rear sway bar, bushings, and the sway bar to frame mounts (and bushings) from a junkyard car this afternoon.

 

Only problem is, it appears to require these hexagonal threaded bolt inserts for the two top 10mm bolts, and something else on the bottom (I was too tired to look at it too carefully).

 

I'm pretty sure my car has the hex holes, but nothing else. So in a nutshell, anyone know what I need to get? I was able to remove one insert from the car, but nothing more. Anyone know if I can just buy these new instead of trying to coax them off something that's old and rusty?

 

Also, no problems running these + the auxiliary spring (the little "8" spring)?

[rich_e777]

Forgot this in the other reply, a member once told me that keeping the Aux. springs will keep the car a bit lower than without.

[Taylor]

i ordered the hex inserts from the stealership but that was about 10 years ago. They were not that expensive. Not sure if you can still do that.

 

I did both with and without the aux springs (but my 88 had the SOLID ones instead of the "8" ones). In the end, I removed the aux springs when I did my rear struts (mostly due to not being able to compress the solid springs enough to get the rear struts in). I noticed a difference, but I think it was more from replacing bad rear struts with good ones than the removal. Also, the car didn't sit any different in the rear when it was all said in done that I could tell.

[pitzel]

Taylor, were you able to just pound the hex inserts in, or did you need a blind rivet nut tool?

[pitzel]

Okay, did some more research. I have ordered Bolhoff SM8H2.55 blind rivet nuts. 10mm hex diameter, M8 thread. Unfortunately none of the cheapie stuff from China or the other usual sources will work, and even the Bollhoff parts aren't easy to find.

 

And these need to be inserted using a blind rivet nut tool. Going to order the one off of Aliexpress for $48.

 

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/-/1977336874.html