Rep Power: 235

Guys, I am clearly doing something wrong here. I think I need spacers. No other hardware is included. A little background info:

I had replaced the front LCA bushings with ES black bushings. I have replaced the front sway with the progress sway. The brackets are already torqued down, but I am still able to pivot it obviously to get the right angle. In the pictures the suspension is already loaded, the car is on ramps all around. The pictures are of the drivers side. 2 angles are with the end link fully extended - which clearly raises the sway bar far past horizontal and puts it too close to the metal shield on the frame. 2 angles are with the end link fully shortened, which is close to stock, looks right, it mates better (at a 90 degree angle/bolt perpendicular to sway) BUT the same problem exists. The bolt barely reaches through to the other side.

I know this is not how it's supposed to be. What am I doing wrong?






Sorry about the rotation being off, looks like it was auto-rotated when uploaded.

 
Rep Power: 243

You need to get a bar and pry the sway towards the link. Suspension unloaded.

 
Rep Power: 235

Hey, thanks for the fast response.. do you think you could explain a bit better? I'm not quite understanding.

If I pry the sway towards the endlink - which I'm not sure I'll be able to do because it is a pretty thick beefy bar, and the stops next to the bushings are welded on so it wont give me any lateral movement, I would literally be bending just the outer segments of the sway bar - anyways if I DO pry it, and bolt it down, as soon as I un-pry it wont all that tension be transfered to the bolt and snap it at the heim joint attached to the LCA? It doesn't have the range of movement for me to do that I think. And i though endlinks should always be installed with the weight of the car on the suspension?

Sorry for all the questions, these didn't come with any instructions and all the googling usually give me DIY's for rear adjustable end links, which look different.

 
Rep Power: 243

When I replaced my front end links with new ones (OEM) I did it with both front tires off the ground. When I removed the old end links the sway bar end flung up from being under tension. I put the new end links on and had the same issue as yours so I used my bar that jacks my jack up to bend the end of the sway down towards the end link (just the outside bent).

From what info I could find at the time I thought it was done with suspension unsprung.

Maybe someone else can chime in on that.

 
Rep Power: 194

What I do is remove and install all hardware with the suspension unloaded, but I do the final tightening with the suspension loaded. I've never done major work though

 
Rep Power: 235

I consulted the service manual and the haynes manual, and they agree with you slim, you can attach the LCA to subframe, LCA/balljoint and end link bolts when the car is up or down, but it should be torqued with the car level and the suspension under load.

I double checked the dezod website, and it said "blah blah blah not sold with spacers because blah blah blah". So I went to lowes and picked up some 3/8-16 SS bolts and washers and some spare nylon lock nuts cause I'm not sure if those are re-usable.

It took me some searching to figure out how to place the spacers, but most results I found agreed with a setup like this:



That's an STI up there, but the goals are the same: equal length of spacers on both the sway bar and lca bolts, to balance it out and make it as vertical as possible, and they should go immediately on the other side of the nylon lock nuts, and before the washers.

Gol: I think with yours, since you removed the endlinks with the car raise, the LCA's were dropped all the way, pulling down on the endlink/sway. When you un did those it released the sway that was being pulled down and it popped up and the LCA was able to go to it's lowest resting position - and then when the new ones went on, the LCA was still in this position and couldn't reach the original height of the sway bar hole for the endlink bolt. Instead of jacking the LCA up, you pulled the sway down, so same correct result different approach - if I'm getting what you're saying right.

 
Rep Power: 243

Yea that makes sense. I'll make sure I loosen them first before raising the car up next time. Seems like it would be easier that way. I have those heim bolt end links on my rear progress sway and have been wanting to put some on the front (they are really nice). Now I know I do remember reading about making the links as vertical as possible when I was doing my rear sway (I need to write stuff down).

The car will feel great after you replace the front end links. Steering was a lot better after I replaced mine.