Sway Bar bushing replacement

[bunk]

O.K. now it's finally time to replace the sway bar bushings to get rid of the clunk in my 2002 LSE. I purchased the 30mm Suspension bushings from Energy suspension. I have searched and read up on all the posts. I want to bring it to a friends shop because he has a lift I can use but he has been on the road for awhile so I might not be able to use it. So right now the plan was to raise the front of the car on jacks. I assume I need to remove the underside cover that connects to the bumper for access.

Do the drivers side first. Get the upper bolt out from above with a 20" extension and universal or wobble socket (13mm bolt). The bottom bolt comes out from the bottom with a box end wrench because of the lack of room. Remove the old mount and bushing. Lube up the new bushing and install.

Now go to the passenger side. From under the car remove the two bolts that hold on the DCCV mount. Apparently these are hard bolts to find or at least one of them is. Once those two bolts are removed you can move the DCCV and mount out of the way to get to the upper sway bar bolt. The lower bolt is removed just like the drivers side. Remove the old bushing and install a new lubed up bushing. Reinstall the lower cover and go have a few cold beers.

So am I missing anything? I know I'm missing greasy, cut up and scratched hands as well as a sore neck from being under the car.

Thanks for any extra help you can provide!

Kyle

P.S. I'm the only person in our area with a LSE. It sure sticks out and turns heads. Glad I got it last fall as my "Winter" car. Pretty soon the 93 Mitsubishi VR-4 comes out of storage for the year. Now the wife is calling the LSE her "Summer" car. Here are the two rides.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3168063

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2351471

 

[LEOV5]

Hi Kyle, You have two very nice and well taken care of cars. Nice job on the polished intake. How long did it take you, from start to finsh on that job?

 

[De-marko]

Nice cars man! I wish I had an LSE, or a running LS period. Ha

 

[FALECF4]

+1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

 

[bunk]

Thanks for the comments on the cars. Well I put LSE up in the air after work on Friday night and 40 minutes later the driver side sway arm bushing was in. On Saturday I worked on the passenger side. What a bitch. I had some other projects so I worked on it here and there. Ended up finally getting it back together on Sunday afternoon. My hands are pretty tore up and sore. Not a lot of room to move the DCCV out of the way. Just glad to finally get the bushings in and now the car is quiet again.

Kyle

 

[bunk]

Hi Kyle, You have two very nice and well taken care of cars. Nice job on the polished intake. How long did it take you, from start to finsh on that job?

LEOV5,
As far as the polished intake. I store my VR4 over the winter so I just took it off in Feb and worked on it until I was ready to take the car out for the summer. It really wasn't that hard to do, it just took a lot of time. I bought a hand sander from Walmart that has a point on it (looked like and iron). That got to the hard to reach areas. Just start with rough sandpaper to get rid of the rough finish. Then slowly use finer and finer sand paper. Eventually I was using 600 and higher. Then hit it with a polishing wheel and presto it shines. It looks good but I know I could get it better if I took a little more time. I just wanted it back on the road so I quit before it looked like glass. I didn't do the bottom because no one will ever see it. Right now the car is still in storage and this is the first year I'm not going crazy to get it out. I like driving the Lincoln so no hurry for the VR4.

Here are some pics of before during and after.

before

During

After

Starting on the valve cover. Just applied paint stripper to half of it. Worked awesome. Hardest part was sanding around the letters!

Kyle

 

[baire702]

How do you like these sway bar bushings? I am having a devil of a time trying to find bushings in rubber. Any ideas? My son has tried Energy Suspension and doesn't like them. That's why he is having me look for rubber bushings.

 

[grizzlyls]

How do you like these sway bar bushings? I am having a devil of a time trying to find bushings in rubber. Any ideas? My son has tried Energy Suspension and doesn't like them. That's why he is having me look for rubber bushings.

??

Amazon.com: Moog Sway Bar Bushing: Automotive

Of Course thats for the original Gen 1 unit. If your gen 1 was converted, or its a gen 2 then I imagine it would be hard, they are molded to the bar and you need the whole sway bar replacement. There are several sources for these bushings (uro, moog, etc), but you may need to reference it like you had a Jag. I bought those for mine and they are same as stock.

 

[baire702]

??

Amazon.com: Moog Sway Bar Bushing: Automotive

Of Course thats for the original Gen 1 unit. If your gen 1 was converted, or its a gen 2 then I imagine it would be hard, they are molded to the bar and you need the whole sway bar replacement. There are several sources for these bushings (uro, moog, etc), but you may need to reference it like you had a Jag. I bought those for mine and they are same as stock.

Hi, this link you sent, will these fit on my Gen 1? She was built in June 2002, which I believe is the later part of Gen 1s.

 

[grizzlyls]

It will as long as it is the first sway bar design. The way I would tell that is the bar looks like it has two welds (making ridges) raised on either sides of the bushings. This is meant to keep the bar from shifting side to side inside the bushings. The later bars didnt have that, and you can see several pics here from guys that put shaft collars there to lock them down.

If its a first version, the 'welds' would be in the way for shaft collars.

 

[RigsLS]

Be sure he understands there is a differance with respect to Sport or Base model diameter bushings.

 

[grizzlyls]

Be sure he understands there is a differance with respect to Sport or Base model diameter bushings.

Ya true that. I ordered these as a result of a cross chart reference for URO bushings that were for a LS, so got to thinking I better check. Saw Moog listing them for the Jag S type, and felt better about Moog although they are likely made in the same plant. Either way it measures 30mm so that would be for the sport suspension.