onepointone

i came home today after a long day of work to see that my sway bars had arrived ($294 shipped from shox.com, suspension tech. front and rear)

i loosly put them together in my living room (so i could be in the a/c) and decided i would "slap" them on real quick and go for a test drive.. i jinxed myself right there.

its been a good 2-3 hours and im just now done with the front. i couldnt get them on the middle setting like it says because there was WAY too much tension on the bar. everythign was a REALLY tight fit. and i had to use a bench grinder to grind down the flange that holds the sway bar and bushing to the rear axle because it was too wide to fit in the slot. other than that it wasnt too bad. now im moving to the front which i hear is harder. its 9:30 and i have to drive this car to work at 6:30 in the morning. ill post feed back and results tomorrow when i get some driving in.

also, that front bar is MASSIVE.

GavinJuice

well you can go without the rear one to work. do it when you get around to it.

onepointone

no, i did the rear first. i drove around the block and it wasnt as *** happy as i thought it would be.

the front back in retarded. the opening where the sway bar goes through isnt big enough, not to mention suspension tech. wants you to use the stock swaybar bushing bracket (that holds it to the frame) and it doesnt seem to be big enough either. this is bullshit, they could of done a better job designing this thing.

now, also the rear has the ends pointing down towards the ground, so i have to nice little hooks ready to catch anything thats laying in the road. ill take a picture when i can. im not too happy right now, i hope it makes it handle alot better.

i said f' it for tonight, and ill do it tomorrow after work, which sucks because i never give up on things. this sway bar is just kicking my ***

bouis

Yeah, I just got finished with this one. It's a real pain in the ***. I had to cut the bracket too... if I could do it over again I'd cut it at the BOTTOM as it sits in the car, because the sway bar wants to rub there because of the huge bushings.

To get the front bushings on, I had to hammer them in with a socket extension. Then I had to straighten the bushing brackets and re-mould them to fit.

It squeaks like an SOB. Make sure you use as much grease as possible. I guess I couldn't keep enough on while struggling to get the bushings in place. If I ever take my front bar off I'll try wrapping the bar in teflon tape...

bouis

Also, the front bar isn't (supposed to be) adjustable...what are you trying to do with it? Heh.

Siraniko

iTrader: (13)

I only use TMC sway bars and springs since they are only few minutes from me (unlike RB or mazdatrix = 1 hr). comes complete with new bushings, end link to the lower control arm and brackets along with instructions (like I read that trash). Yes, you have to wrap the sway bar with teflon. im referring to the part that goes in the bracket. Anywyas, enough criticizing ST.

After installing front sway bars for over a dozen FB, its easier for me to leave the brackets loose and have another person to assist in installing the other end link, Meaning install both ends at the same time. Otherwise, there will be losts of tugging and pulling.

bouis

wackyracer: are the TMC front bars the same diameter as the suspension techniques ones?

If so, I'd really like to get a set of their bushings and bushing casings for the front. Could you give me their contact info?

Siraniko

iTrader: (13)

here ya go

http://members.aol.com/tmcgroup/

bouis

Swell, thanks. I e-mailed them. Do you remember if their sway bar is 1 and 1/8" like the racing beat/suspension techniques ones are?

onepointone

well, i got it on today. i cut ALOT out of the tension rod bracket, and the SWAY BAR BUSHING. WTF you shouldnt have to do that. its didnt come with enough lube, so i used some stuff we use at work, doesnt make any noise.

first impression on driving.

the cars feels more stable in turns at speed. no real difference jerking the car back and forth at low speeds. i wont really know the real difference it made till the autox this weekend.

impressions on the kit however..

would i buy another set for my other rx7? HELL NO. i would go with racing beat. seems to be the trend that they take some time (for parts ive gotten atleat), and sometimes they are more expensive, but you get what you pay for. this of course coming from someone who hasnt installed their sway bars, but ive never heard complaints from their bars.

the bushings on the front should NOT of needed to be trimmed. i felt bad doing this, but i had to use a sawzall to trim it because you have to use the stock bushing brackets on the front. they really need to include new brackets as well or doing something to size down the bushings. crap right there.

the rear sway bar doesnt look right how it is installed, but it seems to be the only way. i could only get it onto the stiffest setting in the rear, i couldnt stretch it enough to get it through any other holds on the rear bar.

when in turns the car feels to be pretty well balanced, even with the rear bar on the stiffest setting. there is however some understeer at low speeds that doesnt make me happy. this could be due to tire pressures, but i mounted these tires 2 weeks ago and set the front to 36psi and the rear to 31 psi.

i would not attempt doing these bars unless you had some frabricating skills, and tools.

EST. TIME. 2.5 hours rear, 2 hours front. this was alot of "what the hell am i going to do to make this work" time, and fabricating some stuff

once i got the front to fit in to the tension rod brackets, it was cake from there, maybe about 10 minutes tops. ill try to put it on a lift at work and take some pictures

bouis

I talked to Geoff at Mazdatrix and he said that the racing beat sway bar has the same problem with the front bushings. According to him, "a good tight fit is what you want."

onepointone

a good tight fit, and "no way in hell that will work" are two different things. there is NO WAY to get those front bushing brackets on without cutting the bushing. NO WAY. it WILL NOT HAPPEN, i promise. its a tight fit now, and its squishing the bushing out the side a little. i wont be suprised if the bushing wears out prematurely.

edit, im sure any aftermarket bar with have the same problem with the tension rod bracket hole not being big enough just because its about the size of the stock bar, and youll be sticking a much bigger bar in there, but the other stuff makes it a pita

rotor vs. piston

k

rotor vs. piston

II posted that I was putting my ST sway bars on about two weeks ago; maybe I should have shared my experience so all of this wouldn't be so shocking.

I got my sway bars for Christmas but didn't get around to them until a few weeks ago. I didn't have any problems at all with the rear sway bar, I thought to myself "that was TOO easy". THEN I got to the front. I jacked the car up looked at what I was up against and then it started to rain, so I grabbed some lunch and had time to think about my plan of attack. I disconnected the sway bar, disconnected the tension rods from the control arms and removed the tension brackets. I slipped the brackets off the old sway bar to find that the ST sway bar end was to big to just slip the barkers back on. I wallowed the hole out of one bracket to make it fit over the sway bar but later found that on the other bracket a large hammer will do the trick. Then as I'm trying connect the swap bar to the brackets I find that the bushings are to big. So off goes about 1/8 of the bottom of the bushing with a hack saw that I'm glad I thought to bring with me to work on my car, you never know when you'll need a hacksaw. I also found that removing the tension rods from the brackets makes things much easier. With allot of force and patients I get the bushing brackets attached. I then put the whole assembly on my rolling jack and lift the bar so the tension rod brackets are close to the frame (unless you’re lucky they will not be lined up with their holes at all). At this point I mount one tension rod bracket and then commence to moving the sway bar and other tension rod bracket to line it up with its holes. The hard part is over and now just bolt the tension rods and end links back up and you know have, in my opinion, a car that will handle much better.

All in all I will buy another set of ST sway bars when I do another Rx-7 project. I just wish I had a heads up on the "extra" pains we had to go threw to get them installed. None of the "problems" were referenced in any documentation which kind sucks. But again I would still recommend them but also warn of the extra steps that are not mentioned in the directions.

82transam

iTrader: (18)

I have the RB front bar on my car, and man did that install suck. I'm glad to hear that I wasn't the only one to have problems. The bar fit through the holes in the tension rod brackets, but barley. In order to get the bushings on I had cut them in half and install them in two pieces. A very bad idea I know, but it was the only way to get it on, I was at wits end, and here it is 4 months later and still on there. I also had problems getting the end links on, even with stands under the control arms to make them more parallel with the ground I could barely catch a thread. What a pain in the ***. I was about ready to kill someone that night, but as soon as it was in (took 4 hours with nothing but a drop light in the driveway at night) I went on a long drive, man does it make a difference, more responsive turn in, less understeer, definatly worth all the swearing IMO, well, maybe......

bouis

I didn't cut the bushings. I took the bushing casing and straightened it out completely, then bent it so that it'd fit. The bushing was still too big; that's why I had to hammer it into place...

82transam

iTrader: (18)

really? my bushings fit perfectly in teh stock holders, my problem was getting them around the bar and into place. The split was on the side, and I just couldn't get it to rotate around the bar so that the flat spot was in the right spot. Its a poor design, and as someone said earlier, these issues should be noted in the instructions. If you could call that cheesy little piece of paper instructions. It was no more helpful than "remove old bar, install new bar, test drive"

rotor vs. piston

I agree "intructions" ya right. Getting the bushings around the bar was super easy, maybe because I had practice when I put on my PST bushings a while back. But the side of the shell the bolt goes threw would get nowhere close the mounting hole.

bouis

82transam, the trick is to unbolt the tension rod brackets, then rotate the bushings.

bouis

Okay, you have the racing beat one. And the bushings *did* fit in the casings? SOB. I want to get new bushings/casings so when I get rid of this squeaking, I can put it back together right.

rotor vs. piston

Your squeaking might be coming from your end links. Did you put any lub on them?

bouis

I thought you weren't supposed to.

nimrodTT

I have the ST bar, it was an easy install once I figured out that I had to completely disconnect one of the tension rod brackets to get the bar in place, and that the suspension on both sides had to be at the right extension at the same time for the bar to slip onto the end links easily.

ps. Ground-Control makes bushings that fit perfectly in the stock brackets and wrap around the 1.125" bar. I think they cost me $10 a few years ago.

bouis

NimrodTT, just what I wanted to hear. Thanks!

I guess I should e-mail them next...heh, this is getting tiresome.

bouis

Do they even have an e-mail address? Damnit! I don't have long distance phone service.