You're welcome Max, and you did exactly what I would have done. Glad you got it fixed.
Speaking of fixing, the sway bar on my '69 rusted off back in the early 80s, and I never got around to replacing it. (I can hear the gasps of horror from the audience) Since my driving these days consists entirely of trolling around town with the dog in the back seat and the occasional trip on back country roads at old geezer speeds, I can't say I even notice that the sway bar is missing. Oh, the humanity...
I just went through this and would just like to share my experience. After reading some of the other peoples experiences this was my approach.The first thing I did was clean all of the exposed stud threads with a wire brush in a dremel. Then I heated all of the nuts with a torch and let them cool to help break any rust. I oiled the exposed threads and removed the nuts without any drama. I placed the sway bar with the brackets still attached on a piece of plywood and marked the mounting hole locations. I drilled out the brackets, disassembled and painted the components. I drilled 5/16" holes in the mounting locations, threaded 5/16 × 1-1/2" bolts through (it's what I had lots of). I put the clamp half that attaches to the body over the bolts, slid the rubbers onto the bar and centered them, put a little silicone grease on the rubbers and put the second half of the clamps over the rubbers and bolts. There was enough thread to put nuts on the bolts and easily pulled the clamp halves together. I tack welded the halves together but you could drill them and put a pop rivet or sheet metal screw or even zip tie them together. I removed the assembly from the board, lubricated the mounting studs and held it up and installed it without drama or cursing. Had it not been for others sharing their experiences I may not have been so carefull.
Dave Kelly
Campbell River B.C.
1973 Sport(sold)
1980 Spider 2000(project, aren't they all)
Great info, thanks all. I was just under the front of my ride changing the oil (first time) and noticed how dry rotted all the bushings are. As to them, is there an noticeable improvement if one goes to urethane vs stock rubber? This is a daily/weekend driver, not a track car.
PeterLlo wrote:...is there an noticeable improvement if one goes to urethane vs stock rubber? This is a daily/weekend driver, not a track car.
The urethane bushings will be noticeably stiffer. Fine for the track, but not so much for typical street driving. I've always used the standard rubber bushings as found them to be just fine.
