New BontragerWorks Rear Swaybar For My SVX

[Lookin4SVX]

Well Yesterday was the 4th of July, and I had some friends over to hang out and do the cookout thing.
I figured while I had the free labor around, what better way to celebrate this great day than by installing my new BontagerWorks Rear Swaybar.
You know, nothing says 4th of July quite like laying under a car in 90 heat, swearing at 18 year old rusted bolts, while trying to avoid eating the falling rust.

The original bar was in very bad shape. The endlinks and bushing were so shot I don't think it was doing anything at all.
You could move the bar around easily with 1 hand.
After removing the original bar, I took some pictures of it.

Original Rear Swaybar:






I think it is safe to say my original bar and bushing were toast....


Here is the BontagerWorks Rear Swaybar in a side by side comparison:

[Lookin4SVX]

Ok, so now onto the install.
We put the car up on ramps and removed the original rear swaybar:




This is what it looks like with the bar removed.
Drivers Side:
You can see the factory mount bracket still held on by its top bolt in this picture, we bent it out of the way and pulled the bar out (after the bar was out of the way we remove the brackets):

Passenger Side:


We then loosely mounted the new swaybar by the new mount bushings to the original location.

We decided that since the nuts were on the top on the factory brackets that we would install the new ones the same way.
Nevins writeup does it the other way, not sure if it makes a difference.
I think it would have been easier to get the nuts on with them on the back like Nevin did, since you can see what your doing.


Once we had the new bar held in place loosely by the bushings, we moved onto the endlinks.

We loosely attached the endlink, bolt, washers, and nut to the swaybar's end on the Drivers side:


Then we loosely attached the endlink, bolt, washers, and nut to the hub end on the Drivers side:


At this point everything on the drivers side is on, just not tight:

[Lookin4SVX]

Then we moved onto the passenger side and repeated the process.

Passenger Side Bar End:


Passenger Side Hub End:


Passenger Side Loosely Together:


Ok, now that all the parts are on, we centered the bar and began to ajust and tighten down the endlinks.

First we did the Passenger side Hub end:


Then we did the driverside hub end:


Then we tightened down the Driver side Bar End.


Then we tightened down the passenger side Bar End


Then We Tightened Down the bushing bolts.

Passenger Side Bushing:


Driver side Bushing:

[Lookin4SVX]

The Finished drivers Side:


The Finished Passenger Side:


Rear Swaybar Finished:

[Nevin]

Great pictures there! For curiousity sake, how hard would you rate the install on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 being easy, 10 being hard.

And yes, you're exactly right about the bushing mounting bolts. I tried both ways myself, but the way I took a picture of made it easier to start things.

p.s. Yes your bar was in horrible shape. hahaha

[SilverSpear]

Man... I have never seen a swaybar in such a bad shape!
Good thing Nevin came with his bar...