Lost a sway bar bracket.

[Tyler]

I've been hearing a weird noise coming from the front of my car lately. So i took the front tires off and checked things out and noticed a problem on the passenger side. The sway bar bracket was missing so that explained the thump noise i heard. Problem is that it looks like the mount is almost rusted away and i need to cut out the old mount and weld a new one in then put the new bracket on. Kind of sucks but i hope it fixes 2 problems the thump and a noise i think is caused by the bracket being off, kind of a high pitched sound. I'm hoping thats caused by it vibrating while driving. Just got to go to the dealer and get a couple brackets and do both sides along with replacing the rubber padding.

[DustenT]

Originally Posted by Tyler

I've been hearing a weird noise coming from the front of my car lately. So i took the front tires off and checked things out and noticed a problem on the passenger side. The sway bar bracket was missing so that explained the thump noise i heard. Problem is that it looks like the mount is almost rusted away and i need to cut out the old mount and weld a new one in then put the new bracket on. Kind of sucks but i hope it fixes 2 problems the thump and a noise i think is caused by the bracket being off, kind of a high pitched sound. I'm hoping thats caused by it vibrating while driving. Just got to go to the dealer and get a couple brackets and do both sides along with replacing the rubber padding.

I just did this. My website is down at the moment, once it's up I'll do a quick write up for you.

[Tyler]

What size replacement bushings should i get? I see two different sizes available for the ti, 24mm and 26mm.

[DustenT]

My sway bar mounts were rusted as well, I had to cut grind them off and replace with new ones. They are available at the dealership for like $20/each. This is not for the weak at heart, it's a huge pain in the a55.

This is what the sway bar mount looks like with the sway bar attached:



This is what was hidden underneath!!



Take a sawzall and get prepared to stretch into awkward positions to get it cut down to this. This took about 1 hour:



I have a 4 1/2" angle grinder (Bosch!), use that to grind the rest of the steel mount down to bare metal:



This is the new mount, grind the edges to you'll get a sweet weld on it.


....5 picture limit.....see the next post....

[DustenT]

continued from above....

This is my work area, big friggin' mess:


Weld the new mount onto the car, and then coat with rubberized undercoating to cover up your ugly ass welds.



This is how the mount came out, looks of pieces:


Total time spent: 6 hours.

[DustenT]

Originally Posted by Tyler

What size replacement bushings should i get? I see two different sizes available for the ti, 24mm and 26mm.

26mm if you have the factory sport suspension. 24mm if you have the stock non-sport suspension. Don't run 24mm bushings with 26mm bars.

[Tyler]

Thanks for the pics,write up, i'm really not looking foward to doing it but i can't drive it like this, well i could but it will only damage it more. I have an active so the 24mm should be the ones for me.

[DustenT]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Thanks for the pics,write up, i'm really not looking foward to doing it but i can't drive it like this, well i could but it will only damage it more. I have an active so the 24mm should be the ones for me.

You probably aren't going to damage anything by driving with it like that. I did for like 4 months because it was too cold to lay on the cold concrete.

[SlickmisterN]

Oh man that sucks about the front mount. I just saw a black slightly lowered Mustang GT on the freeway, and his f&%#en rear aftermarket bright red sway bar was hanging on the ground spurting sparks all over the road. It was acting like a friction brake. So get up next to the guy and try to get his attention but this young man was riding sooo low inside he could just barely see over the steering wheel. I'm just starring at him (straight freeway) with no particular expression on my face and finally the kid looks at me, so i point to the rear of his car and this fool jams down into 3rd and zoops a few car lengths ahead.

Just before I got off the freeway I noticed the entire passenger side of his huge sway bar came detatched from the mount so then it was like a jumping snake behind his, car scraping the entire underside and parts of the back of his bumper. I tried to help, but after situations like that I figure why bother. Good luck on the fix. PS IMO more damge may be caused by driving it, don't sways add to the integrity of the chasis?

[DustenT]

LEFT STABILIZER SUPPORT 41118151121 $23.44
RIGHT STABILIZER SUPPORT 41118151122 $23.44

[thesk8nmidget]

Originally Posted by SlickmisterN

Oh man that sucks about the front mount. I just saw a black slightly lowered Mustang GT on the freeway, and his f&%#en rear aftermarket bright red sway bar was hanging on the ground spurting sparks all over the road. It was acting like a friction brake. So get up next to the guy and try to get his attention but this young man was riding sooo low inside he could just barely see over the steering wheel. I'm just starring at him (straight freeway) with no particular expression on my face and finally the kid looks at me, so i point to the rear of his car and this fool jams down into 3rd and zoops a few car lengths ahead.

Just before I got off the freeway I noticed the entire passenger side of his huge sway bar came detatched from the mount so then it was like a jumping snake behind his, car scraping the entire underside and parts of the back of his bumper. I tried to help, but after situations like that I figure why bother. Good luck on the fix. PS IMO more damge may be caused by driving it, don't sways add to the integrity of the chasis?

hahaha oh god!!



and good work dusten!

[cooljess76]

Excellent writeup Dusten. I'll be doing this when I have my engine out here in a couple weeks. My car came from Michigan, but it's not quite as bad as yours was. I'm getting a little shake while turning left at speed. I'll probably replace the ball joints and LCABs while I'm at it. Then once the motors back in, I'll take it in for an alignment.

Did you have any problems aligning the new brackets in the exact location as the old ones?

[DustenT]

Originally Posted by cooljess76

Did you have any problems aligning the new brackets in the exact location as the old ones?

Nope.

[cooljess76]

Sweet man, your writeup is really helpful. Thanks!

It should be a breeze, since I'll have the whole front end dismantled. Figure I might as well do this repair while everything is out and I could just squat in the engine bay instead of welding on my back. +1 on the rubberized undercoating. Wouldn't want to do this twice.

[Rami93]

Originally Posted by Tyler

I've been hearing a weird noise coming from the front of my car lately. So i took the front tires off and checked things out and noticed a problem on the passenger side. The sway bar bracket was missing so that explained the thump noise i heard. Problem is that it looks like the mount is almost rusted away and i need to cut out the old mount and weld a new one in then put the new bracket on. Kind of sucks but i hope it fixes 2 problems the thump and a noise i think is caused by the bracket being off, kind of a high pitched sound. I'm hoping thats caused by it vibrating while driving. Just got to go to the dealer and get a couple brackets and do both sides along with replacing the rubber padding.

Where did you get the supports?