EDIT: everything is finished, but thanks anyway.

Just have a quick question...is it terrible to drive without the rear sway bar attached for a couple days?

Here's my weekend horror story...

So I just got another car on friday, a 95 LS that I am eventually going to use as a project car and am selling my 01 LS to my brother...

So on Saturday I get both the cars to my buddies place to switch off a couple parts from my 01 to 95 before I get rid of the 01. The list of parts is the shocks/springs, exhaust, header, cat, and little stuff in the engine (fpr/plugs/ect...)

We started around 1pm and everything was going pretty smoothly, got the header swapped, front suspension, engine stuff...It was nearing dinner time so we took a break went out for some food and started against at almost midnight...we just figured we only had a couple hours left and only the exhaust and rear suspension left to do.

So the 95LS has a 5zigen exhaust while my old 01 has a world sport, I like the sound of the WS better so I was like why not switch them, I figured the mid section would be the same size and all so we figured we can just swap the axle back and call it a day with the exhaust.

Well first of all we found out the 5zigen had rusted where the muffler meets the piping and the muffler section was basically lying there aorund the piping, and 2nd of all the pieces where the axle back bolt on are different patterns...so we just said **** it, leave the exhaust and Ill just end up buying a new one later on...so that was that.

So it was onto the rear suspension...this is where the fun starts...

We get a look down there and figured out what needs to be done...started with the 95 LS and got the first shock/strut off no porblem...2nd shock/strut...here is the problem. For those of you who dont know, the shock is threaded on one side where it connects to the LCA, well it was getting really late and were trying to avoid using air tools at this point...so we tried to break the bolt loose...and the ******* head of the bolt broke off!!! WTF?!?!

Move onto the next car figuring we'll deal with it tomrrow...anyway...next shock/strut...same thing!!! Broke another one...we just figured this was unreal and waited til Sunday to finish this crap...also a cop came said people were complaing about noise...drilling...hammering...air tools past midnight = bad idea lol...

So we finally get the last shock/strut off no problem with air tools and decide what to do about those last 2 shocks...we end up cutting off the threaded section of the shock and drilling the threaded part of the bolt stuck in the LCA...the only problem is that now the middle section of the bolt was stuck in the LCA...

My buddy is a service manager at a dealership so he is going to take the 2 LCA's into his shop and hopefully drill those bolts out...if he cant is there an alternative...besides buying new LCA's?

We ended up taking the 2 good LCA's and putting it onto one of the cars to at least get one finished...the only problem is that I forgot to reattached the rear sway bars before my brother left with the car...and he cant make it back til tomrrow...is this going to be a major problem, or should I tell him to drive as little as possible?

Anyway thats my weekend horror story...

cliff notes: swapped suspension, exhaust parts, broke bolt that connects LCA to shock, forgot to reattach sway bar....only 1 car is left drivable...


Modified by xteg01 at 8:19 AM 8/2/2005

 

im driving sway bar-less this week, and have been since... friday i guess. i broke the hell out of my rear lca/shock bolts and had to replace my lca's. well i ordered them and one didnt have the sway bar mount. i could go no longer with out a car so i just said buck it and am running with out a sway. needless to say it sucks but i think im doing ok. im just driving to work and home, basically because it feels like im driving a school bus.

i dont think im doing any awful damage to the car... and i hope no one is gonna say other wise. but worst case scenerio ill just park it til i get that new lca (which was shipped today). word up to srgt ng for selling me his.

 

alright well i guess that works

 

Oh yeah, I thought I'd mention I got the car 95 LS w/129k miles for 2k from one of my friends...newly painted electron blue pearl about 3-4 years ago and interior is clean as hell...I'll post some pics up tonigt when everything is finished

 

You don't need the sway, just be careful of the body roll in the turns.

 

crappy pic but everything is all finished..ended up buying new LCA's :/

both cars, new (95 LS) on the right:


After

 

Don't turn too quickly because you can cause frame damage without the reinforcement of a rear sway bar. Upgrade to a Type R one while you're barless, though. It improves handling a lot and is pretty cheap.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by apok &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Don't turn too quickly because you can cause frame damage without the reinforcement of a rear sway bar. Upgrade to a Type R one while you're barless, though. It improves handling a lot and is pretty cheap.</TD></TR></TABLE>

err its not barless, just forgot to bolt it on...cant do it til tomrrow since its my brothers car now.

 

if you go with a type r rear sway bar make sure that you get a beaks kit to reinforce that area or you run the risk of ripping the rear subframe loose from the car. The type r rear sway bar is really thick(23mm) and on the type R the sub frame is reinforced from the factory to comensate the added torgue created by the beefier bar. Just make sure you look into stuff like the itr bar and any upgrade really to make sure you do what you need to make it safe.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boostinb20vtec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if you go with a type r rear sway bar make sure that you get a beaks kit to reinforce that area or you run the risk of ripping the rear subframe loose from the car. The type r rear sway bar is really thick(23mm) and on the type R the sub frame is reinforced from the factory to comensate the added torgue created by the beefier bar. Just make sure you look into stuff like the itr bar and any upgrade really to make sure you do what you need to make it safe.</TD></TR></TABLE>

This is true.