Attention 5th gen accord owners: the installation of the progress rear anti-sway bar is a bitch. That said, here's how I did it:

(note: I did not realize this would be a challenge worthy of a write-up when I began this project so pictures are sparse.)

I began by jacking up the rear of the car, removing the wheels, and supporting it by the LCA's with jack stands so that the suspension would be compressed.

Removal was cake, no bolts even rusted into place (when removal is that easy, you know the install is going to suck )

The old bar off the car:


Install of new bar:

1st, you must install the new bracket for the endlinks to connect to. Progress notes that there may be some modification of the brake line tab on the LCA to allow the brackets to fit, I only had to move the brake line down a touch.

Next, I greased and installed the poly bushings on the bar and loosely assembled the endlinks like so:

(note the slight interference of the brake line, I was able to just move it out of the way when I tightened down that bracket)

Next, I was supposed to use the bracket extenders provided by progress, drill holes in the rear subframe and attach the middle of the bar to the rear subframe. Simple, right? WRONG!!! After about an hour of pulling my hair out trying to make these brackets which were poorly designed work, I decided to call it a night.

Enter my buddy, the engineer (everybody has one of these, right? If not, get one...they're quite handy!)

We made a template of the rear subframe (kinda) and decided to make our own brackets.

Our quite advanced template :


And using some scrap aluminum and a mill, we came up with these jewels:
Old on the left, new on the right

this side up, facing the rear crossmember

this side down


With the new brackets made, the install was a breeze, even at night!


Before final tightening

All tightened up


And the final product:


Tightened up endlinks, dropped it off the jackstands, took it for a ride, and the results were awesome!

I was really hating progress for the brackets that they sent me, but when I took the time to do the install right, I couldn't be happier with the way the car feels with the new bar on!

Time for a



Modified by propwdialogue at 8:48 PM 10/7/2008

 

#1 suggestion kill the size of your pictures hahaa

640x480

Nice install though - I"m curious what will come of the Prelude Progress bar... I'm still looking into it


*edit*

HAHA already resized them Since your stock bar is off the car - mind measuring it across for me? Mounting point to mounting point?

 

Bad news, the skinny old thing already left the building, sorry dude, didn't even think about it

 

Muffin Man is sad

 

added to the FAQ

 

what sway bar are u using

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jdm_cb7 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what sway bar are u using</TD></TR></TABLE>
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PROGRESS REAR ANTI-SWAY BAR INSTALL

 

As an addition to this, I just completed it and was able to use the stock Progress mounting bars, I dropped the plastic gas tank cover to access the hole I drilled.

 

congrats

Did you give up on the prelude bar?

 

man that bar looks great, really beefy

awesome job on the install man

 

Yep, would've been quite a bit of work. We have holes in the correct location, but they're

1) Too big
2) Not threaded

So I would've either had to weld the brackets in place or weld up the holes and thread them. Then come up with custom end links. That and I got a sweet deal on the Accord Progress bar so I figured I'd keep it simple.

 

dang this seems to be a much harder install that the ST sway bars that i have. looks like it was a bitch

 

Yeah, it was definitely more difficult than I originally expected, although it seems the muffinman had an easier time with it than i did

 

I've installed a couple of Progress rear sway bars: one on a '96 Accord sedan and the other on a '97 Accord Wagon. I didn't have any problem with either of the installations using the supplied hardware, but you have to be very careful where you drill the four holes in the rear cross member for the sway bar bushing brackets.

Before drilling, you must position each bracket and mark each hole such that you have enough room on top of the cross member to be able to drop a hex bolt through each of the four holes. "Measure twice, drill once". This isn't complicated; it becomes pretty obvious once you start figuring out where to mark the hole centerlines.

I must say I'm very satisfied with the Progress sway bar, which is why I bought a second one. It's one of the biggest bars available for the rear of the 5th Gen Accord, and really gives the car the roll stiffness it needs.

BTW: Kudos to the OP for the great write up and detailed pics!

 

Dude this is awesome. Is there anyway you could make another one of those brackets?

PM me with a shipped price if you can.