new whiteline swaybar install questions - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

reddog69 · 05-29-2004, 10:21 PM

okay picked up the sway bar at the post office couple days ago

now i noticed the yellow bushings that came with the sway bar dont have the metal brackets on/with them...
example: Click Here to see sway bar install thread.. about 12 posts down you'll see the picture between the gen4/solara and the gen3 bushing/brackets

is this because its my responsibility to get the brackets or can i reuse the stock ones for the stock sway bar(does my car even have a stock sway bar to begin with)?

sorry for reposting this from the group buy thread, but im having a friend help me install this tomorrow and kinda need an answer asap.. thanks guys

Warped · 05-29-2004, 10:29 PM

You can use the stock ones.

reddog69 · 05-29-2004, 10:36 PM

awesome, if everything goes well, i should have it installed by tomorrow afternoon.. ill post results

a94autoCamry · 05-29-2004, 11:17 PM

looking forward to seeing ur pics, and also be sure to note how much better the handling went as well...

reddog69 · 05-30-2004, 08:18 PM

holy shit what a catastrophe!

a 45 minute job to change the rear sway bar turned into a whole day job.. everything that could of went wrong, went wrong
considering my car is 14 years old and everything underneath is rusted.. needless to say, one of the bolts to the bracket that goes around the sway bar bushings broke off inside the bracket bolted into the frame

went to strauss and bought a broken bolt removal kit, which are actually drill bits but the threads are reversed

anyways, i used a drill bit to drill into the broken bolt to start a small hole for the bolt removal bits.. then guess what, the drill bit broke inside the bolt... back to square 1 again.. so then we(friend helped out) used a bigger bit and started to drill into the bolt to help smooth out the top so we can start over

after we grinded down the top part of the broken bolt, we then used another drill bit to start a small hole into the broken bit & broken bolt... bingo got a hole! soo now we popped in the bolt removal bit and started drilling... guess what THE BOLT REMOVAL BIT BROKE IN TOO!@#$

anyways, to make a long story short.. we broke the small drill bit and 2 of the bolt removal bits.. so then i went to kmart and purchased Titanium coated drill bits and started drilling away.. needless to say, we had 3 broken drill bits drilled into each other inside the broken bolt... which made it very difficult to drill into even though we got stronger bits this time

anyways, we gave up after 6 or so hours of this never ending battle, left the broken bolt inside.. bolted the bracket back to the frame.. eased the new sway bar in there, put the polyurthane bushings on with lots of grease, bolted the one side of the bracket of the passenger side(the side where one of the bolts broke off) and used twistie ties to help secure the otherside plus the 3rd bolt to the vertical control arm.. bolted the 3 on the driver side.... and then took it for a test drive to see how it holds up with only 2 bolts on passenger side(i was going to temporarily keep it this way til i get it to a shop where they can drill it out for me or see if the dealer has a replacement bracket that holds the bushing up on tuesday because i dont know if there open tomorrow which is memorial day)

anyways, after driving around, it was fine for 5 minutes until it started clunking
surprisingly the twistie ties held up but not the one side of the bushing bracket, it bend the whole thing and almost straightened it out

so what we then did was cut all the twistie ties off, wrapped a towel around the sway bar on the passenger side where its clunking against the fuel tank and used twistie ties to keep the towel from moving
then used a loose twistie tie to the control arm so it doesnt move around much

its fine if i drive around carefully and take turns slowly.. but on tuesday(or monday if anyone is open which i doubt) im gonna take it to a local shop or the dealer(if they have the part in stock) and either replace the bracket or get someone to drill it out for me i had enough of this shit already

this project would have been great if that god damn bolt didnt break..
Lession to all of you with older cars and rusted bolts.. be very VERY careful not to break them off! what a pain in the ass

okay now let the laughing begin cuz i know some of you are probably laughing your asses off at me

LebaneseCam · 05-30-2004, 08:23 PM

HAHAHHAHAHAHA. You should of waited for me to come online because thats the exact same thing that happened to me, and I still got the bolt out but it still makes the clunking noise. Actually i havent noticed it lately, but my car is really low. You cant mess with those bolts, thats y im never buying a whiteline sway bar.

Warped · 05-30-2004, 10:27 PM

Aww that sucks dude.

I hope the shop has better luck than you did with the bolt...

reddog69 · 05-30-2004, 10:34 PM

yea ive pretty much fucked that bolt to hell and back
i drilled through 3 bits in the center of that bolt, all of which broke off inside of each other after drilling through

but i still did not make a hole all the way through

so i can either buy a new bracket in which the bushing bracket bolts into or find someone that can fix this one for me
i just know that driving around with the passenger side of the sway bar with only the end link bolted with twistie ties on the top of it is NOT good
i pretty much have to drive like a granny, take turns at 5~10mph taking it easy so the sway bar doesnt clunk or twist.. oh and forget about bumps in the road

i gotta get this fixed asap, hopefully i can find someone open tomorrow, a dealership, local shop, junk yard, whatever, but something tells me my bad luck has yet to reach rock bottom.. then again, after everything that has happened, i just keep expecting the worse to come...

LebaneseCam: how'd you get the bolt out?

***Silver Streak*** · 05-30-2004, 11:02 PM

Sorry to hear that man...that sounds like hell...it's times like these where DIY jobs really gets to be a pain in the ass. I tried installing my swarbar on my driveway...I got everything off except one endlink (with the hex bolt on there), and I had to put the stock stuff back on. Went to the mechanics, he did it for $30.

As for your bolt, if you get a bit stuck in there, can you try to take a pair of vise grips actually remove the bolt? Like clamp the visegrips on the drill bit, and try to remove the bolt? Spray in some rust remover or WD-40 or something.

amerikim · 05-30-2004, 11:03 PM

now, tell me you did use lots of penetrating oil right? Or at least WD40..something.....and you let it soak in for a while.

***Ratko*** · 05-30-2004, 11:14 PM

Same thing happened to me when I was doing a DIY install for my TRD rear sway bar in my driveway. Two of the bolts that hold in the bushing brackets snapped on me... So i said fuck a few times, and decided to just take everything out (endlinks and all) and run without a swaybar (which had no negative effect on driveability) until I could get the car to my mechanic who could extract the broken bolts and install everything quicktime with power tools. So I did, and about a year later Im still happy as hell with my swaybar.

reddog69 · 05-30-2004, 11:50 PM

yea i soaked all 6 bolts with silicone penetrating lube after i jacked the car up onto stands and before i took the tires off

hey ratko, how much your mechanic charge to do it all?
and also, are the endlinks easy to take off? cuz im thinking about taking off the sway bar completely for now, its too unstable with one side bolted and the other side endlink bolted/w twistie ties

amerikim · 05-30-2004, 11:57 PM

damn, now you got me running scared. In context, seems like a difficult DIY. I am still waiting on my bar and shocks, wonder if I should shop it out?

reddog69 · 05-31-2004, 12:13 AM

well the project would have been easy if the damn bolt didnt break.. other than that, it shouldnt have taken more than 30-45 minutes to unbolt and take out the old sway bar and then put in the new one

if your bolts are in decent condition, then you could probably DIY
if there rusted, then maybe you'll want to take it somewhere in case it breaks, or maybe they can use a torch on it before unbolting

da_horse · 05-31-2004, 05:21 AM

installation of rear sway bar is quite easy, took me all up about 1.5hrs. you just need to plan it out and take it easy. Seriously, a rear sway bar can be one of the best easy mods to do.

I remember my bolts werent that rusted, but i sprayed heaps of CRC onto the bolts, left them there, and removed anything else i needed to. by the time i got back they slid out nice and easy...

dont get freaked out by one or two mishaps, you just gotta take ur time, and sometimes you cant avoid badluck like reddog69 here

Huy