Inner sway bar bushings removal

[metallic95]

Hey guys,

Haven't been on in a while, fixing too many things on other cars and just trying to catch up on maintenance with the cutlass lol. I just finished up the wonderful process of drilling out rivets and replacing the original ball joints. I threw in some new outer sway bar bushings while I was in there, but the inner sway bar bushings don't look too hot. The service manual says that the bar needs to be completely removed, but it looks like I can just unbolt the clamp and pop it off since it has a slit on it. Anyone managed to change them without removing the sway bar? I did a search but I couldn't find any writeups on it.

Thanks!

[rich_e777]

Its exactly like you`d think to do it, no need to remove the bar. Clean the old bracket and hardware really good to get all the crud off the bolt threads and grease the bushing up before you bolt the bracket back down. I do believe unbolting the outer bushings first will make it easier.

[metallic95]

Awesome, thanks for the reply. I'll definitely be doing that next, it steers so much nicer with the new ball joints already.  I'm not sure what size sway bar mine has though, rockauto lists like 5 different bushing sizes for the inners. Is the VIN number any good for that or do I have to go and grab some dial calipers lol?

[rich_e777]

What year and engine you got? IIRC they only had two options 28mm and 34mm, the LQ1 DOHC got the bigger bar. Not sure what size the smaller bar takes but I`ll check one of mine tomorrow. The poly ES bushing have the size pressed into the side of them.

[metallic95]

Mines is a 1995 3.1L. Yeah, if I could know the size that'd be great! 

[rich_e777]

5347 is what I can discern from the black inner sway bar bushing and 5338 is what is on the red outer bushing. You may have to dig into those part numbers a bit to see what cross references as these were installed 7+ years ago and the ES bushing numbers changed since then to one that uses a decimal. 

[55trucker]

With a 3.1 engine you'll have one of the smaller bars, my '91 DOHC GT is fitted with the big 36mm bar, the ends where the control arm bushings are placed is 24mm.

Can you get your hands on a vernier caliper?

[metallic95]

Sorry for the late reply,  yeah I think I might just drop by HF and get some calipers lol. I couldn't find any info about the energy suspension bushings cross reference, I'm gonna call them and ask if they can refer me to the current part number.