I've seen a few threads on the topic. Having just done this. I have a few things I'd like to offer on the subject of putting a sway bar on a car that didn't have one.

We started with our CRX hf. We took the sway bar, and all of the attachment widgets, off of a 91 civic SI. Also took the lower control arms because they have the mount holes you need. Our sway bar was 13mm in diameter

The CRX chassis did not have the holes tapped for the factory sway bar mount that came on the SI, so we had to make a mount using the tow hook locations. The factory mounts are shown attached to the sway bar in this pic. Your none sway bar car won't have the necessary holes tapped to make that factory mount work... rather than make a proper removable mount You could, I suppose, just weld the factory mount right to the car ... But that ain't right. We ain't building a derby car here. That's not an option. Build it right and you'll have a sweet mount that you can service and use to tune your car.



Rather than boar you with details, here are a few things to keep in mind when making your sway bar mounts... and you're going to have to make something.

1) Attach the new donor LCA's to your car. You have to change your LCA's because your old ones don't have sway bar mount points.
2) mount the sway bar to the LCA's on both sides and let it dangle out the back.
3) using a piece of mechanics wire, support the sway bar in the middle so it's roughly hanging with the loose end about 4" below the chassis rails. You want to raise and lower the bar itself so that it's in a position that is NOT blocking the bolts for the LCA's when you finalize your location. Make sure you can get a socket on there (see pic) or you'll need to take the sway bar off any other time you might find yourself taking off the LCA as the sway bar will be in the way of the bolt if you don't pay attention to that now. Use the factory sway bar mounting plate (that can't bolt up) to roughly tell you where the bar should be. Also make sure your sway bar is centered side to side. You can see there is a socket on the inner LCA mount, and the bar clears it in the photo.




4) put the sway bar clamp do-dads (the things that hold the sway bar to the chassis) onto the sway bar. At this point, it's now easier to see how to fabricate your mounts, because the clamp do-dad is showing you EXACTLY where it wants to be. Rather than welding things together on the bench using approximations, you can see clearly where that part needs to mount. You don't want to tweak or force the sway bar. Let it be where it wants to naturally fall on it's own, relaxed. Build your mounts to meet that piece.





Our mounts ended up looking like this (pic below). keep in mind, another one of the reasons you're likely to have to build a mount is to clear your exhaust. Most cars without a sway bar originally have had their exhaust stuffed into that area where the sway bar now goes. you may have to cut or rotate pipe to get everything to clear. Here's what our mounts ended up looking like. We have a 3" exhaust to contend with, and this all clears with about 1/4" of gap in all directions. should run fine with no rubbing or squeaks. The right side mount was so strong we used "slightly" thinner material for the mount on the left side. To the untrained eye, they look identical. We were able to lighten the mount from 33 ounces to 23 ounces with more than enough strength.





Now get to work, scrounge some bits and put a sway bar on your car.

 

nice this look good nice write up

 

nice

i just so happen to have a rear sway bar that came with my car along with some other misc parts the guy gave me

any one know the part# for the "D" shaped bushings from honda or energy suspension?

 

Can I see pictures of your exhaust set up ? some exit pictures would be nice, thank you

 

nice work...i would add the rear disc brakes while you're at it

 

Here's how it comes out the back. full 3" exhaust. It's on the right side as it exits the back. Painted stealth black.

 

I like the resourcefulness
I like how you fabbed it up

But this makes the swaybar a bit too stiff from what it was designed to be.

I would expect a bent swaybar soon.

The ASR brace comes with mounting holes.

And the fact its a beefy brace, helps your rear end quite a bit.

+1 for teh work, +1!!

 

Not sure how it could be anything but as intended by Honda. It's using the stock LCA locations. The stock sway bar end locations, and the factory mounting points for the clamps. No geometry has changed, no mounting locations changed.

It's mounted as the factory would have done. Only difference is that it's on a different car now.

 

Looks like someone's trying to get on the stickied FAQ list

Here's the ASR setup. Looks pretty cool.

 

how much is that ASR?

 

vector ; thanks for the info/pic of your exhaust setup. is it super loud?

 

that setup will not work on an ef, our swaybar does not mount to the subframe.

 

that ASR pictured is FOR a 88-91 civic/crx

 

I was looking at the Function 7 brace and thought the same thing. They say that it is for 88-91 Civic/CRX, but which swaybar is used? Their website says that you can use the factory swaybar but the mounts are different. Do you mount the bar backwards?

 

My point exactly. You can't use the STOCK swaybar with that kit. This thread was to help people put on the stock 15mm diameter swaybar on their ED/EF. You just turned a $160 project into a $400 project. Which alot of people would put that money into something else, or they would of already have gotten the ASR subframe kit.

 

the civic si sway bar is 13mm btw. i cant tell what you have, im sure you can read it right off the bushing. but just saying its 13mm stock on a civic. crx's have 15mm.

your suspension looks like a ronald mcdonald playground.

and this same info is already in the faq. thanks for sharing tho.

 

I like the fab work but wouldn't it be much simpler to purchase a tap kit to tap some new threads into the stock mounting holes and use appropriately matched bolts since you have the matching brackets anyway?

 

yet another awesome build from this guy...

 

Quoted for truth. In my case "free to $400", now that's a serious chunk of change.

 

Where the holes are, it's sheet metal. Not thick enough to tap.

Color was "as delivered", These parts came in a happy meal. Not actually the same information in the FAQ. We solved some things differently. As an example we modded the sway bar bushing mount clamp, it's double eyelet now with captured nuts. We didn't weld a stock factory mount to some flat iron. We made the whole bracket, modded the height of the mount and explained why and how to set the bar. And the easiest way to find the mounts natural location. After building the right side, and getting a feel for it's strength, we were able to use slightly thinner metal on the left side and dropped the weight of the bracket from 33.75 ounces to 23.5 ounces. Little things like that give folks different ideas on how to tackle a project. It's not a "how to" as much as a "here are my thoughts" having done it. Hopefully help a dude out. Give him some ideas and direction. The more ideas, the better.

You correct about the sway bar diameter, it was 13mm. corrected.

Exactly. And this conversion was technically FREE! We just robbed parts off of our SI parts car. FREE = GOOD.

 

I like the coloring for noobs, if they don't know what a part is then just tell them the color of the part and they can find it!

 

btw, if you didnt already notice, i put the link to this thread within the OTHER thread concerning the same subject that is already in the faq.

i do see whats different, but really in the end its the same thing.

and i think just putting a nut thru the frame and using the stock hole locations would be much easier. your mounts are overkill for a 13mm bar anyway.

 

Yea, but who wants to cut a hole in their floor?

I disagree on the overkill thing. If it was 22 pounds, yea, I'd call it overkill. It's 23 ounces, and ready hold any bar you toss at it. We want to spend some time trying different bars and this puppy is race ready. I might try and make a set out of aluminum for fun. Be cool to see if I could get the mounts to say 12-14 ounces.

 

no need to cut holes in the floor. you fish the nuts thru the railing. just take off the bumper. its really that easy.

but nice fab work.

 

Well there ya go. that sounds like a decent work around. you can get a wrench that far up the frame rail?