This time we're going to install the Progress Group's rear sway bar/tie bar on a 2001 LX. We'll also install their mounting kit since 2001 LX's didn't come with a rear sway bar from the factory. You'll also need the mounting kit if you drive a DX, although 2002 LX's no longer require it. The mounting kit actually lets you adjust how much force is transfered through the sway bar during cornering by varying the angle of the end links. More on this later...
Here you can see everything that came with the kit. Instructions, brackets, nuts, bolts, a tube of grease, etc...
The first step is to lift up the rear of the car so that you can work under it comfortably. You can jack it up by putting the jack under the part pictured, but you should use a block of wood to distribute the weight more evenly. You can also jack it up by the two hook, but my jack doesn't go high enough to put the jack stands under the support points if I do it that way. See the board that the jack is on? I tried to raise the jack first and then jack up the car by the tow hook, but I couldn't find enough boards to get it up high enough. I've done it this way before though. Your choice.
Put the jack stands under the support points in back. They're thicker metal that you can see if you look under the car. Raise the car up enough so that the rear wheels are off the ground. Of course, do this on level ground. I did this in a garage. If you do this on uneven ground then put your can in first and block the front wheels. This will ensure that the car won't roll when you jack up the back. The only thing keeping the car from rolling off is the traction of the rear wheels and the emergency brake. I didn't block off my front wheels when I did this. I just put it in 1st. I was on very level ground though. Your choice.
Take off the wheels. With the emergency brake up you can take them off with the wheels off the ground. That's what I did, although I guess you could loosen them a little before jacking up the car.
Here I tried using two clamps to hold the lower control arm attachments in place while removing the two bolts. This worked, but then what? I tried threading the bolts back through from the opposite end, but there isn't much room back there to do that. If you want to buy a set of shorter bolts just for the purpose of holding everything in place then that's k3wl. I gave up on threading the bolts through from the back and I removed the clamps. Guess what happened? Duh! The lower control arm attachments slipped out of place. This is annoying because it's kinda hard to line up the holes again.
I decided to spray the area down with some rubberized undercoating. I noticed that the RSX's have more back there than we do. There must be a reason for it, so that's what I'll do too. I masked off what I didn't want to spray with some newspaper. I did a very rough job, but you could be nice and neat if you wanted to be. I sprayed it down several times. I let it flash (surface hardening) for 15 minutes betwean coats. I then set up a little electric heater and let it run in the garage all night; a necessity when the garage is cold as all hell. In the morning everything was dry.
You can see this little light that I set up in the corner. Unless you're doing this in the daylight you'll need some extra light to help you see what's what under the car. I have this little clip on light that I just clipped on to the undercarriage. Works. Now, you'll want to fasten the tie bar to the car first. I jacked up the lower control arm and used a set of pliers to align the two holes so that I could push the bolt through. The pliers went in betwean the chassis and the lower control arm attachment point. I used the rubber end so that I wouldn't scrape off any paint. You'll have to mess around with it for a while, but it's the best way I've found so far to align the two holes.
With the tie bar on you can drill out the holes. The instructions say to mark off the holes and then drill them with the tie bar off, but I think that's kinda stupid. Just use a drill bit as large as the holes in the tie bar and drill out the holes. That way they'll be dead on.
Now you can take off the tie bar and drill the upper holes out to 1/2". That's rather thick metal up there, I was surprised. It's more than and 1/8" thick.
Finito! All the holes are where they should be. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]
Now you'll need to make the upper holes into threaded ones with the supplied nut-serts. Just read over the directions carefully and do what they tell you. You basically have a bolt with the nut-sert on it and a regular nut on it and a washer as well. Then you insert the whole assembly into the hole with the nut-sert end going in first. Remember to have the end of the nut sert that gets squished facing you. Then just hold on to the nut with a wrench and turn the whole assembly with a socket wrench. Two wrenches work too, but it's not as comfortable. Keep turning until you feel more pressure than usual. Check to see that the threads of the nut-sert are flush with the 1/2" opening. That's when it's seated all the way.
Here's the mounting kit. You basically assemble it as the instructions tell you to. There's a nice little CAD drawing that comes with the kit. Just follow it to the letter. See the gold-colored hardware? I replaced the hardware that came with the kit with the gold-colored stuff. The kit came with Grade 5 hardware, but I replaced that with Grade 8. Grade 5 is 40% stronger than standard and Grade 8 is 200% stronger. I was mainly worried about the bolt up top since it's under the most sheering force. Oh yeah, I also replaced the thin nut on the end link with a thicker one since I could do that without sacrificing any adjustability. Plus it's easier to grip with a wrench and there's more threads for it to be torqued down properly. Although I don't quite get why it's there in the first place? Oh well...
Here's another view. You can tighten down the nut at the bottom that holds the end link to the bracket. You should leave the two nuts holding the bracket to the lower control arm kinda loose so that you can adjust everything later on. The nut that will hold the sway bar onto the end link is just loosly threaded on for the sake of the picture.
Now attach the sway bar to the end links. The sway bar goes on the outside, the end links go on the inside. Tighten the lock nuts that hold the sway bar to the end links down by holding the bolt with a wrench and tightening the nut with a socket wrench. You'll have to move around the whole assembly to get the best access; this is where the articulation of the end links comes in handy. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]
Now put the tie bar back on. You could do this step before putting the sway bar on; whatever you're comfortable with. I supported the lower control arm with a jack and I stuck a pair of pliers in betwean the lower control arm attachment point and the chassis. I used both of these to align the two holes. The jack for aligning the holes vertically and the pliers for aligning the holes horizontally.
Now you grease up the bushings with some grease. Either use the grease that they gave you or you can use something else. I have this really thick grease that stays in place and is totally water proof, so that's what I chose to use. The bushings have some space in the middle for the grease to fit in. This is Progress's "new" bushing design. Good! Me like. See how the sway bar is oriented? The middle has a little bump that points up. This is the way that the sway should be installed. The brackets go around the bushings and the upper bolts thread right in to the nut-sert. The lower bolts are fastened with nuts from the other side.
I slid the whole sway bar assembly down as far as it would go before I tightened everything up. Simply check for exhaust clearance and lower control arm clearance as you adjust everything. You don't want the sway bar to hit the exhaust as the rear suspension compresses when you go over bumps. The sway bar and exhaust will not move in the left to right direction in this picture. Good thing too since there's only 1/8" of clearance betwean the two! In the other direction there's plenty of clearance. About an inch from the exhaust and an inch from the lower control arm.
Now center the sway bar so that it is equidistant from the lower control arms. Then put these rings on the outsides of the sway bar and tighten them. They prevent the sway bar from moving side to side. Now position the end links so that they are as close to vertical as possible. This causes the maximum amount of force to be transfered from side to side during cornering to reduce body roll. You can position the end links so that they're at an off-angle to vertical to increase body roll. Suspension tuning baybee! Now we just... No, wait... Guess what? You're done!
Here is a picture of the sway bar clearance after the car is back on the ground. It's not as bad as it seems though because the sway bar is in front of the exhaust. There's still about an inch of clearance betwean the sway bar and the exhaust.
Lookin' good! I love this setup. I have both Progress sway bars now. The front and the rear. During maximum cornering the rear tends to slide out a little bit. This is good though 'cause I can still tune the rear with the mounting brackets. If the situation was reversed I would be screwed. This setup lets you corner much better than before. I still don't know where the cornering limits of this setup are, but I know that at my previous maximum speeds the tires don't screech anymore. The only thing that bugs me is that there are a ton of creeking noises coming from the rear now. It's not the sway bar or any of the sway bar bolts. It's not the exhaust either. It's the damned body flexing in back. It's the same sound I had up front before I installed that frame stiffener from the 2002 Civics. I think that once I install a rear strut bar the noise will go away. At least I hope that this is the solution. People on ClubRSX.com have verified this problem and the solution seems to be a rear strut bar.
Progress Rear Sway Bar & Mounting Kit 
