[Tell me I am ok....ST front sway bar and a slightly squashed rail]

There is very little rust on the car. I have looked long and hard. Case in point. Following is a picture on my driver side T/C cup, rail, and wheel well. You can see the factory and aftermarket Ziebart coatings which I have been removed in these areas. The picture is taken before the final cleaning with mineral spirits to remove the undercoating residue.

 

 

Terry, the bottom and sides are fine, it is only the top. Thankfully I stopped in time. I have thought about tapping the old captive nut and screwing the bolt from the top through the captive nut (and then attaching a nut on the other side of the bracket), but my concern is making sure the tap is perfectly straight.

 

I reused the stock elliptical plate on the bottom along with the ST brackets.

[Tell me I am ok....ST front sway bar and a slightly squashed rail]

I installed a set of ST sway bars on my car. In the front I drilled through the rails and ran longer bolts to the top of the rail. I used some large fender washers up top to help distribute the load....apparently it was not enough.

 

As I was tightening the nut, I kept thinking, "Damn, why is it not reaching 18 ft-lbs (the right torque spec IIRC). There is an awful lot of thread showing." When I reached up to the bolt top, I could feel that I had slightly deformed the top of the rail. I did not make the same mistake on the other side.

 

I contacted John at Bad Dog Parts and asked if he could custom fabricate one of his sway bar plates for me. Instead of just an angle iron, the piece now slips over both the top and bottom of the rail. I intead to have these welded over the rails.

 

My question to the denizens of Hybridz: Is the squashed rail ok (enough) to have the plates welded over it? Or will I have to have the rail fixed?

[Splined distributor shaft]

Another tip is to draw an imaginary line from the two bolt holes shown in the second picture. The tang should be almost parallel to that line at TDC. Some call it the "11:30" position.

[Rack Bushings]

I removed my rack by jacking the engine. If your bushings were as fried as mine, you will not be able to simple pull the old bushings off the rack and attach the new ones. It was a good thing I was pulling my rack off otherwise it would have been a lesson in frustration.

 

Do yourself a favor and just pull the entire rack. You'll have to clean the seating area for the bushings before putting on the new ones anyway.