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I have just given up for the evening after working from noon on upgrading the front sway bar on my 1999 SE V6. I bought the Aero upgrade kit from Taliaferro last fall. I put the rear bar in at that time. It was a snap.
Now, along with Powerflex front control arm bushings, I have started the front bar installation which is much more difficult. The instructions at both Taliaferro and Alldata show the procedure for a 4 cyl. The V6 rear engine mount is different and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to remove the 3rd mounting bolt at the rear. It is far too close to the firewall even with the subframe partially dropped. I can't get anything on the head to remove it. This is required to allow the subframe to drop without dragging down the steering rack. The engine mount straddles the rack and both it and the rack must be undone to let the frame drop to access the sway-bar clamp bolts and remove the bar.
So I gave up on that thinking I might be able to remove the old bar with a partial sub frame drop. DAMN! One of the bar clamp bolts sheared off in the subframe. I think I can chisel off the welded nut that the bolt is stuck in and fit a new capscrew and separate nut. That's for tomorrow to try. I don't even want to think about having to remove the sub-frame entirely to fix this.
So then... I try to loosen the nut holding the little ball joint at the end of the bar to the link. The exposed threads are corroded enough to make it impossible to remove. I get it 2/3 off and it jams. Back and forth with plenty of lube and still stuck! Nut-splitter tomorrow! Both sides are bad. I'll probably have to buy a thread die to clean them up to get new nuts on.
Then... one last try on one of the stuck bar link nuts and the socket slips and my elbow smashes into the frame. YEOUCH! That's it for today for sure now.
The instructions make it look SOOOO easy! This is NOT a simple DIY at all!
Especialy on a 5 yr. old car that sees slush and salt that corrodes under-carriage fasteners.
Reg
posted by 142.161.121...
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