IE Front Swaybar Installation Questions

[Kidasters]

Well - I've done a search. The best post on this is from Colin. I wish there were more details.

Here are some questions I would love some help with:

1) Which hole are you supposed to use on the end of the bar, and why?

2) The silicon lubricant is for the urethane bushings? Which ones (the ones on the ends or the ones on the frame mounts, or both)? And where (all over them)? And why?

3) How tight do you make the bar end adjustments? I've gotten a reply from Jeff that says that these should be tight enough to compress the urethane, but not have the urethane bulging. But - how many threads should be showing?

4) I thought I read somewhere that when you are doing suspension, you should go to final torque with the car on the ground (weight of the car loading the suspension). Thoughts?

Please look at the pics and let me know.

Thanks,

Ken

[Mike Self]

4) I thought I read somewhere that when you are doing suspension, you should go to final torque with the car on the ground (weight of the car loading the suspension). Thoughts?

That's referring to the rubber bushings in the lower control arm and the big one that goes into the subframe at the very front of the car. Shouldn't make any difference on the swaybar bushings as they are (1) urethane and (2) aren't loaded in the same manner as the control arm bushings.

mike

[Schweineback]

Which hole depends on how you want to handle your car. Thighter, or more forgiving.

[BrianC]

Well - I've done a search. The best post on this is from Colin. I wish there were more details.

Here are some questions I would love some help with:

1) Which hole are you supposed to use on the end of the bar, and why?

2) The silicon lubricant is for the urethane bushings? Which ones (the ones on the ends or the ones on the frame mounts, or both)? And where (all over them)? And why?

3) How tight do you make the bar end adjustments? I've gotten a reply from Jeff that says that these should be tight enough to compress the urethane, but not have the urethane bulging. But - how many threads should be showing?

4) I thought I read somewhere that when you are doing suspension, you should go to final torque with the car on the ground (weight of the car loading the suspension). Thoughts?

Please look at the pics and let me know.

Thanks,

Ken

The bar on Colin's car was done here at my shop, and have installed many of the IE hollow fronts. It is a very straightforward system and goes together nicely.

The holes on the bar for the end links let you choose 2 different stiffness

settings. The on closest to the front of the car is of course the stiffer of the two.

The grease is not silicone but more like dialectric grease and should be applied to all contact areas of the bushings. It is to prevent squeaks and lubricate.

Exactly what Jeff said is exactly how to tighten the endlinks. What I usually do is mount the bushings and bottom bolt part to the control arm, mount the top heim joint to the bar and get the threads started. Then tighten the bottom just until its tight (but not bulging). It's not a matter of threads showing it's a feel.

You don't ned to have the chassis compressed to set this sway bar.

HTH

BrianC

[jerry]

i noticed that the "radius rod" or whatever i've seen it referred to here and in the Haynes manual, is threaded.

what's up with that? looks like it's been there for awhile. i suppose this allows you to adjust your control arms forward or aft, slightly.

also, i don't see the reason for the newfangled configuration of the front swaybar. all the loading on that Moment-arm applied to those little welds on the attachment bracket. perhaps it's easier to install, maybe?

[Kidasters]

Thanks to all for the help. I've also had some running e-mails with Jeff Ireland. Here's what I have learned - quoting his latest e-mail:

"The lube is for moving parts. So you need to lube the bushings that attach to the chassis that the bar rotates in.

Final tightening is normally done with the suspension loaded. You can put something under the tires to raise the car enough so you can get under it.

The rod should have about 1/2" of threads engaged. The end links are adjustable so when you tighten them you can adjust the length slightly to reduce or eliminate any preload."

So - I used the front holes (thanks to Brian and Colin - I cheated and tried to match Colin's pictures). Took the front bushings off, and lubed up the insides with the lube Jeff sent. Put them back on. Lowered the car, and tightened everything up. Made sure that the end links had at least 1/2" engaged (took them off completely and made a mark on the threads with a sharpie). Tightened up the end bushings enough to make it slightly compress the end bushings, but not to bulge them. It's hard to believe that it was tight enough, since they never get "tight".

It looks good. I would go for a test drive, but I also have the exhaust manifold half way out, the entire interior is out, and so it'll have to wait for a bit.

Thanks again to everyone for all of the help.

Ken

[PSloan]

cool man. Where are you in houston?

[Kidasters]

Over on the west-side - Spring Branch area.

[PSloan]

I've been off the faq for a while - how long have you had your 02? It looks very nice - was it the fully restored one out in katy?

[Kidasters]

I don't think so. I got it around June of this year, from a guy on the north side of town. He had done a bunch of work on it (paint especially). I was going to buy something from 2002ad, but this car was here in Houston, and had working A/C, and was reasonably priced. Went and looked at it, and what sold me was that I couldn't find any rust on the body. So - I've slowly been making modifications. Put in a 3.91 LSD from an 83 320 (diff only had 15000 miles on it and I got it for $150). Added a radiator from Curt Ingraham (which works awesome), Crane optical trigger ignition, plugs and plug wires, washer bottle and pump, new motor mounts, Nardi wheel, miscellaneous trim parts, european signals, and foglights. The rear swaybar is in the box, and I work on it as soon as I can put the car on the ramps. Exhaust manifold is coming out to install the IE step header (but to do that, I've got to pull the AC bracket out), and I'm waiting for some Dynamat to arrive before I re-install the interior. I did finally find a bit of rust in the floorboard near the accelerator pedal, but I scraped it all out and coated what was left with Rust-Oleum (too impatient to wait for some POR-15 to arrive).

Next year, I hope to get the money together to get some seats from Dave Varco, and maybe at some point some Minilite wheels. Then I may be done for a bit. Maybe....

Here's a pic of what it looked like when it was all in 1 piece (about 3 weeks ago).

[PSloan]

Looks awesome. Let me know if you ever need a hand. I'm out in pearland.

patrick dot sloan2 at memorialhermann dot org

[TobyB]

also, i don't see the reason for the newfangled configuration of the front swaybar. all the loading on that Moment-arm applied to those little welds on the attachment bracket. perhaps it's easier to install, maybe?

No, the older design of the Ireland 'shorty' bar wasn't in very good alignment for a lowered car- if you put the bar below the radius arms, the links hung way down, and if you put the bar above, it tended to bang into the arms. Neither way got the arms of the bar parallel to the ground at

static ride height. I modified it pretty heavily to get it to work on the race

car, and it's still far from ideal.

The new bar looks like it solves that problem.

t