urgent ^%$$# rear sway bar question

[lostforawhile]

ok what was supposed to be a 20 minute project has turned into a five hour nightmare,I had a bare swaybar from an 89 lxi hatch,I bought all the missing hardware bracketry etc from majestic honda, put everything in,now the bar hits the bottom of the trailing arm,and the frame brackets won't line up. I have turned the bar everyway possible and it only fits one way. I looked at the service manual online and it's installed correctly so what gives? this bar is from an 89 lxi hatch,and I installed it on an 86 dx hatch. is there something different in the trailing links? it's almost like they are about a quarter inch too short. does anyone know if the trailing arm link hole on the arm is in a different location? AUGGGGHHHHH It's already cost me over a hundred bucks,just for the assorted parts and hardware.

[ICEMAN707]

it's hard to help you without pics. but here's a diagram, hope it helps you out:

[lostforawhile]

yea it's installed right,I got the better diagram from the online manual,thanks Paul!!, for some reason it's like the end links are too short. that picture shows the end links upside down by the way,the other diagram shows them different.

[ghettogeddy]

maybe they sent u the wrong bar

[jlros75]

I might say the end links are your problem, if your's aren't like the ones in the picture that could be your problem, those slim round ones are longer by like an inch vs the more fat square ones. I don't know how to explain but if your link's are not like the ones on that picture that's your problem. (go get the longer ones) and good luck with your bar.

[lostforawhile]

maybe they sent u the wrong bar

I pulled this bar myself about five years ago off of an lxi hatch,I got it figured out,the trick is to install everything loosely but don't install the frame brackets yet, jack the car up by the body,and let the suspension hang down on the left side, this allows the main trailing arm to come down, lowering the bar and taking tension off of the frame mounting brackets,install the left side frame bracket,tighten up the trailing link mount on the frame,now tighten up the trailing link to bar bolt. now jack up the right side,put a bottle jack or something like it under the sway bar on that side,jack up the bar until the bracket hole lines up,put in the bolt,and tighten the trailing link in the same sequence as before. it's hiting the bottom of the lower control arm but I forgot it's on a trailing link, as the main trailing arm comes down with the suspension the two unequal length control arms pivot down as well,so does the sway bar at the same rate. so it really just barely touches the arms,it just moves with them. I will tell you it makes a huge difference in the handling of this car,it was designed for the heavier lxi so when you put it on the lighter car,it has the effect of operating at a higher rate. it really moves the steering towards nuetral from understeer. I would prefer oversteer but a lot of people can't drive a car like that. I've had this for years just never thought of putting it on. I could have got the brackets from the junkyard,but the car was sitting on it's hubs and they are having a severe tick problem,not A fun time to crawl though the grass.
I had to order the special washers,the bands,the inner collars,stabilizer bushings,the mounting shafts,the frame brackets, and got all the grade 10 hardware from the local hardware store. still expensive though. for a note anyone who has the haynes manual, the picture showing the frame bracket mount for the rear bar for our car,it's not even close. I don't know where they got that picture,but the frame brackets on our cars mount to the rear center beam.

[lostforawhile]

I might say the end links are your problem, if your's aren't like the ones in the picture that could be your problem, those slim round ones are longer by like an inch vs the more fat square ones. I don't know how to explain but if your link's are not like the ones on that picture that's your problem. (go get the longer ones) and good luck with your bar.

got it fixed see post below,I had one of the original trailing links from the lxi and it matched up with the one I got from the junkyard. the other lxi one was smashed beyond repair.

[Strugglebucket]

how come you didn't just get the suspension tech bars? they come with all the hardware and i think i only paid like $250 for both front and rear.

i will agree that it makes a huge difference in the handling of the car. with most of the heavy stuff (a/c, auto tran, etc.) removed and my trunk completely stripped, the car oversteers quite a bit when i let off in a corner. it's a lot of fun at low speeds but at 60mph+ it's a little scary. i don't even want to know what it would be like with an addco rear bar.

[lostforawhile]

how come you didn't just get the suspension tech bars? they come with all the hardware and i think i only paid like $250 for both front and rear.
i will agree that it makes a huge difference in the handling of the car. with most of the heavy stuff (a/c, auto tran, etc.) removed and my trunk completely stripped, the car oversteers quite a bit when i let off in a corner. it's a lot of fun at low speeds but at 60mph+ it's a little scary. i don't even want to know what it would be like with an addco rear bar.

well I already had the bar itself,all I needed was the other crap to attach it to the car. this bar was already designed for this particular car so I knew everything would fit once I got it figured out. it doesn't really oversteer it's closer to nuetral since it has a slightly higher rate fo the 89 lxi. what I had figured out was there used to be a different bar for the 86 dx as an option way back,which is not available anymore. eventually I will put some stiffer material in the bushings which will be really easy since the center metal part is available as a seperate piece. I completly rebuilt this bar,new bushings etc,before I put it on. I have a feeling they started putting this bar on the lxi's as standard because the back end of the hatch does get a bit twitchy sometimes.

[MessyHonda]

it should be plug and play maybe the 86 and 89 dont line up...i put a 89 LXI sedan one on my DX and it handles a lil better you can feel the tires dig in and ive taken coners more than 50mph and last time i scared the girl i was with...she was like i hate this corner since its downhill..lol

[lostforawhile]

it should be plug and play maybe the 86 and 89 dont line up...i put a 89 LXI sedan one on my DX and it handles a lil better you can feel the tires dig in and ive taken coners more than 50mph and last time i scared the girl i was with...she was like i hate this corner since its downhill..lol

it fit in there, the problem was none of the manuals,even the factory one showed the bar installed in the car. so I had to install this thing blind,including all the bracketry I didn't even know what direction it went in there,by using what little info i could get from pauls online manual i was able to figure it out. it's just the sequence of having to have the suspension loaded and unloaded to install it. I seems strange to have the bar go under the trailing arms but thats the only way it fits. if they were over the arms the links would be too long. and I know these were the correct links,these were the ones from the 89 lxi hatch at the yard. it hasn't even left a mark on the lower arms it just pivots with them it looks like it would be too close but it isn't. it really makes a difference on the hatch. I just rebuilt the suspension too so the sway bars can now have proper effect. if the suspension is worn out, it won't make any difference if the bar is there or not. the slop in the suspension will cancel any effect of the bar.

[MessyHonda]

yeah sorry about that...i had my Lx-i to look at ...i just drove my car up the metal ramps and it sliped so i got scared and then put it against a sidewalk. it took me 45 mins to install mine...i have 15 inch rims and i didnt have the right tools so yeah it was hard to install..but yeah most deft feels good...i did not replace the bushings since the car i took it off had 121k.

[lostforawhile]

yeah sorry about that...i had my Lx-i to look at ...i just drove my car up the metal ramps and it sliped so i got scared and then put it against a sidewalk. it took me 45 mins to install mine...i have 15 inch rims and i didnt have the right tools so yeah it was hard to install..but yeah most deft feels good...i did not replace the bushings since the car i took it off had 121k.

the bushings are really cheap,i got all four for under 13 bucks,from majestic honda,you just cut the raised part of the old bushings off with a knife and push them out by hand. you lubricate the new ones with eithier silicone grease,or vegetable oil and they push right in. the metal center piece on them comes out and is seperate. you can push it out of the bushing with