Write-Up: Front/Rear (Addco) Stabilizer/Sway Bar Installation

Does anyone know if the new front bar can be wriggled in without the cradle or exhaust being dropped? I have no problem sawzalling the old bar out if this is the case.

matt270avian wrote:

Does anyone know if the new front bar can be wriggled in without the cradle or exhaust being dropped? I have no problem sawzalling the old bar out if this is the case.

Impossible without at least the cradle being lowered

Alright. Any suggested methods for doing this without a lift? I was thinking 2 jackstands on the front part and a hydraulic jack on the rear, unbolt it, and then slowly lower the jack a few inches.

You only need to unbolt the rear. You don't need to loosen the fronts at all. The bolts on the front of the cradle are enough to support it. Remember, you also have a giant mount bolted to the engine and body that helps support all of it as well.

Alright, but as far as support for the rear I should still have the jack there right? I don't particularly feel like eating a giant chunk of metal this weekend.

Ha. Yes. All I meant was that there's no need to support to front at all.

Quote :

Does anyone know if the new front bar can be wriggled in without the cradle or exhaust being dropped? I have no problem sawzalling the old bar out if this is the case.

I did it without dropping the cradle, however I have headers installed with a flex pipe, which enabled the exhaust to move up and just enough out of the way.

Since you will be working with the cradle, put your jack stands under the side body 'jack' points, just below the front edge of the door. I would use four, two in the front and two in the back. The more room you have to work the easier it will go.

I also loosened the front two bolts (not remove) to make it easier to drop the back. Not sure if it was needed.

No way to get it in there without lowering the cradle. I tried possible way.

Anyone try removing the rear exhaust manifold? Not sure if that's any easier than lowering the cradle, but it might be.

deekster_caddy wrote:

Since you will be working with the cradle, put your jack stands under the side body 'jack' points, just below the front edge of the door.

I have to jack my car up by these since my jack is too short to use anywhere else. I usually put 2 stands under the front of the cradle where it tilts upwards. Since I only have the 2 stands I plan on putting the jack under the rear of the cradle. Since the bolts shouldn't be completely removed and there's all those other supports I don't think it will cause an issue.

You will want the jack to help you lower and raise the cradle. I dropped mine beyond the length of the bolts.

It can't hurt. Better safe than sorry.

We gave it a shot today. Even with the cradle bolts all the way out and us pushing the cradle down we still couldn't get it out. It seemed like the strut assembly was getting in the way. Since I'm replacing them and my knuckles soon enough we just decided to go at it then. Any ideas what we were doing wrong?

matt270avian wrote:

We gave it a shot today. Even with the cradle bolts all the way out and us pushing the cradle down we still couldn't get it out. It seemed like the strut assembly was getting in the way. Since I'm replacing them and my knuckles soon enough we just decided to go at it then. Any ideas what we were doing wrong?

Did you turn the wheel and remove the tie rod end? I think I also removed the bolt holding the front engine mount to allow the subframe to drop lower. I left the rear engine mount attached.

How far down did you lower the cradle? Did you loosen the front cradle bolts?

We removed the tie rod ends and tried turning the wheels every which way. We did not loosen any of the front cradle bolts because I figured the jack stands under them would not allow it to move any. We were able to force the cradle down about 3 inches. The main issue was that the sway bar kept getting caught on the strut and knuckle assembly.

matt270avian wrote:

We removed the tie rod ends and tried turning the wheels every which way. We did not loosen any of the front cradle bolts because I figured the jack stands under them would not allow it to move any. We were able to force the cradle down about 3 inches. The main issue was that the sway bar kept getting caught on the strut and knuckle assembly.

Try lowering the front cradle and if needed the front engine mount. Use a jack on the front and a jack on the rear of the subframe to keep it under control.

Nah, like I said we'll just go at it again when we do the whole strut and knuckle assembly. It'll come out a lot easier then.

Alright, I'm thinking about going at this again tomorrow. I might even bite the bullet and drop the downpipe. Any tips for how to rotate the bar, which side to pull it out of, how to lower the cradle, etc?

When I did my bars, it was on a lift. We did the cradle mounts on the same day. I just replaced the 4 rear ones as the 2 front mounts were in great condition. I unbolted the rack and pulled down on the cradle and was able to get the stock bar out. The Addco bar went in much easier. You could always just cut the stock bar if you had to.

Quote :

Alright, I'm thinking about going at this again tomorrow. I might even bite the bullet and drop the downpipe. Any tips for how to rotate the bar, which side to pull it out of, how to lower the cradle, etc?

If you decide to remove the downpipe, you should be able to insert the front bar without dropping the cradle. I put mine in with headers and flex pipe installed - I think I also had to remove a tie rod end.

Has anyone gotten these to work on the back?

http://www.kseriesparts.com/cr/ENS-9-5158G.html

Take a look at your rear sway bar bushings and you will know the answer to that.

Oi, just finished the job. Started around noon and then enlisted the help of my friend around 1. Here's a quick rundown of what I did.

Endlinks off
Brackets/bushings off
Tie rod ends out
Full exhaust drop (downpipe back) - not enough room
Drivers side strut out - not enough room
Rear of the cradle being forced down - not enough room
Rear of the cradle forced down with the lower control arm being jacked up as far as possible with the strut still out - enough room

There was 1 shield covering a wire that I bent out of the way. Once I did that the bar practically shot out.

The 9 hours includes a trip to pick up some pizzas after installation and taking the full exhaust to my friends house to get properly welded while it was out. Overall it was maybe a 6-7 hour job. It might have been doable with the strut still in but without it you can jack the LCA up a little higher, make life easier. Initial results are good but I didn't get to fully test it because rain.

^^^^^^^woulda been a perfect chance to get that down pipe installed, but nooooooooooooo.. had to drive a ferrrrrrrrrrrarrrrriiiiiiiiii