Adding a rear swaybar

[jamal]

Unfortunately you can't see where the endlink attaches in this picture, but it's the best thing I can find:



I'm not actually sure where it goes.

[05LGTLtd]

Will any year Lateral link that uses the "C" end link set up work with my 93 Legacy L?

If not what models/years should I be looking for??

Thanks!

[silver03]

I scrounged some discarded wrx lateral links and endlinks...removed the endlink mounting brackets from the wrx lat links with a plasma cutter and welded them to the existing lat links on our 93 L sedan. The rest was easy.

[Brisky]

Does anyone have the torque specs for all these?

I just sourced all the parts but would love some torque spec information.
I have the haynes repair manual and I can not make heads or tails of what is what on their specifications list.

There are 3 I really would like to know.
We have two bolts that hold on the stamped steel swaybar mounts.
The giant bolts that go through both lateral links and the one on the rear that goes through just one (these seem particularly important to know).

Any thoughts on those is appreciated. =)

[jamal]

little bolts- not very tight (18 lb-ft)
big bolts- really f'ing tight (101 ln-ft)
endlink bolts are 32 lb-ft.

I can't say I use a torque wrench for much other than engine assembly and lug nuts. Most torque specs are pretty standard for that particular fastener size and you could go by something like this:

http://www.engineershandbook.com/Tables/torque1.htm

[Brisky]

little bolts- not very tight (18 lb-ft)
big bolts- really f'ing tight (101 ln-ft)
endlink bolts are 32 lb-ft.

I can't say I use a torque wrench for much other than engine assembly and lug nuts. Most torque specs are pretty standard for that particular fastener size and you could go by something like this:

http://www.engineershandbook.com/Tables/torque1.htm

Awesome. Thank you. =)

[Brisky]

I just wanted to report back that I did find all the parts I needed at a junk yard off another newer legacy.
All in all the parts cost me just $28!

Sunday night I went to put them on and man, that was quite the job, much harder than I was hoping for.
I was initially pleasantly surprised to find that there were little plastic caps covering the holes in the frame for the bar mounts. However, that was about the only easy part.

First, like the original post, one of the big bolts holding the rear lateral link on would not come off. We got the other off using a wrench and a 5lb hammer to break the nut free, but on the other one the wrench must have wandered as it rounded off the nut, by moving some of the metal pieces off the edges.

We tried to dremel the nut off, but it just resulted in bonding the metal of the nut to that on the bolt. Had to use an electric Raiobi saw blade (basically a sawzaa) on it to cut it off. Took two battery charges to do it (45 minutes to charge!)

Finally we got the sucker cut off.

Also I had a hell of a time getting that really long bolt off and back on. I even used an air gun!
The air gun almost rounded off one of the bolts too. I think it was due to my cheap sockets, as the sockets themselves were wearing away inside. I was very glad to have kept most of the bolts and nuts off the source car, since we cut one bolt up and rounded off another.

Anyways, we started at 6 pm and finished just before 1 am the next morning. My whole body still really hurts.
Had the alignment checked and its still right on.


Some side notes, we could not get a torque wrench onto the socket for the lateral link as the axel was in the way, so we just got the nuts on as tight as we physically could, hoping that was close to 100lbs of torque.



Last, one of the bolts that mounts the rear plates for the sway bar got on tight, but then just started to spin around. Are the threads in the frame not apart of the frame and it just came loose from overtightening? I was going to about 30lbs when it started to not tighten anymore and spin about.

I am not too worried about it, as it is on tight and its not going anywhere, but just curious if anyone knows about that.

Thanks!

The car handles much nicer now, with better steering and responsiveness!

[Legacy777]

Good notes/write up.

Yeah those long bolts are a real pain!!

Are you talking about the sway bar mounts that mount to the chassis? Is it one of those bolts that just spins? If so, there is a nut welded on inside of the chassis. If that was corroded or too much force was used, that weld likely broke and the nut is just spinning. You can either leave it or cut a small hole in the side of the chassis so you can put a wrench in there to tighten the bolt and/or try and reweld the nut back in place.

[Brisky]

Good notes/write up.

Yeah those long bolts are a real pain!!

Are you talking about the sway bar mounts that mount to the chassis? Is it one of those bolts that just spins? If so, there is a nut welded on inside of the chassis. If that was corroded or too much force was used, that weld likely broke and the nut is just spinning. You can either leave it or cut a small hole in the side of the chassis so you can put a wrench in there to tighten the bolt and/or try and reweld the nut back in place.

Yeah that is the bolt I am talking about.
I probably won't do anything about it for quiet awhile, as it is still on there securely, not jiggling or anything like that. I might do the hole suggestion and try to tighten the nut, but unless I upgrade that mounting bracket, I will probably just leave it as is.

Thank you for the information. I was not sure how those threads were placed inside there. I am betting the weld broke free. =P

[Legacy777]

Yup, it's unfortunately not uncommon for the weld to break on those captive nuts.

[mike-tracy]

So are the C style endlinks an improvement over the older style? I have a whiteline sway bar on the rear of my 91, and have no complaints. But if there's an improvement to be had, I can snag some C-links and supporting accessories from the junkyard for cheap/

[jamal]

Not really. Maybe the lateral link is a little lighter, but a lot of other cars use a link like that. The main downside is getting new endlinks and bigger swaybars because none of that stuff is made anymore. New endlink bushings are pretty straightforward though.

[Legacy777]

I agree with Jamal, there's really not a huge difference. If you've got a WL bar, it should have come with the heavier duty drop links. If you've got those, then I wouldn't see a real benefit to upgrade unless you just wanted to.

[mike-tracy]

The WL bar came with the car, and the droplinks are the stockers. Although, the previous owner put hardened poly material where the bushings went on the droplinks, they are basically in pieces now.

[Legacy777]

Ahh ok. Well you can try and find a "standard" type bushing to use or just got back to the stock rubber ones.....or swap to the C style links. Unfortunately, you can't buy those WL drop links separately. It'd be nice if you could.

[mike-tracy]

So Josh, you are saying that the Whiteline bar that fits the 90-91 style droplinks is also compatible with c-links? I saw a couple of references to that on the board, but no-one came out and said so directly.

[Legacy777]

Yes it is 100% compatible with the drop links & C links.

Drop Links:

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/s ... aybar4.JPG
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/s ... aybar5.JPG

C Links

http://www.surrealmirage.com/subaru/ima ... P_3407.JPG

[mike-tracy]

Thats great news, thanks!

[Legacy777]

You're welcome.

[mike-tracy]

Super late update to my last post here: I converted to 93-99 style legacy c-links from the silly drop links. There are 3x the amount of bushings in the drop links compared to the c-link setup, and mine were in even worse shape than in 2012. Reducing the amount of rubber parts alone is worth the swap IMO. I'll be needing an alignment of course.

I also reused the whiteline RSB without issue on the new style links. I used my digital caliper the bar, and it came out to 20.61mm. Measured my "20mm" wrx wagon FSB and that came to 22.21mm. Cleaned the area to be measured first. So I'm pretty sure I have 20mm front and rear bars.