I tore my car down last weekend which went pretty smoothly, but did take an entire day, as I opted to fully remove the axles, trailing arms and drop the exhaust to have more room to work. I also was doing brake line and some cheater parts (header wrap and a new seat cover for my sparco) Reassembly pretty much sucked largely due to weather (45F with 35 mph winds) but it was a BI-ATCH of a job. I have much respect for all that have done it ! How many beers did you need when you were done ?

I had two problems. On the first, I posted my solution under the thread on spring plate bushings, no big deal. The second one I'll need some advice on please.

I broke one of my T-bar tabs off reinstalling the tube, due to the lack of clearance in the fender well and a crappy weld. I DO NOT want to do this job again, so I'm thinking that I should do like many others and drill the 3" hole in the side of the car, and get somebody with mad welding skills to put on a new tab (without fusing my splines together) Or maybe drill and tap the end of the bar, stick a bolt in it to pull it out, then get the new tab done. What do you guys think ?

I kind of blew my ride height estimate with the stiffer bars, as I ended up at 6.5" to the bottom of the rocker lip. I think that's pretty much stock height. Does anybody race up that high ? My lazy side is thinking I should just run with it, see how it feels, and justify it with my small knowledge of strut suspension geometry. I think that when you lower, it brings down the center of gravity, but raises the roll center which is a bad thing. Any thoughts on that ?

BTW the strut and coilover job was a breeze, and I opted for micro cellular jounce bumpers. That should give me an advantage !!

Thanks for sharing your knowledge

no problem Cullen. Just get a wood dowel that will fit in the end of the bar then screw a 2" drywall screw into the end of the Tbar. you should be able to pull it out a few times like that. or does you bar have a hole in the end ?

One time this goof buddy of mine did not do what i said and we had to do his like this.

Thanks Chuck, I'm guessing that you've got to hammer a dowel in there pretty snug to get the bar out. How deep does that hole go ? No way to tell now that they're in the car !


What have you guys used for the hole in the side of the car ? I have a hole saw (like for doors) but can't imagine it going through body work.

The hole saw should work just fine. I removed the whole rear end yesterday. Not too bad. I thought the general concensus was 4" ride height from ground to rocker panels. Do you know where you went wrong on setting the height? I'm asking so I don't make the same mistake! I have to admit, it does look like a daunting task to change bushings, t-bars and shocks and get it put back together correctly. I sure hope it balances the car better to make it worth the hours.

Thanks Lee, my mistake was doing it without a protractor or any form of math at all I measured the gap between the lower rear bolt on the torsion chassis mount, and the spring plate. With the stock bars it was below that point (unloaded) so I guessed that a 1/2" gap above, would lower me sufficiently, but because the spring rate of the new bars was greater, I ended up with pretty much stock ride height. D'oh !! The bushings aren't that bad, fire is your friend, for the spring plates. I had the chassis mount bushings pressed out, and the new ones pressed in.

Cullen, I would strongly recommend the t-bar tab with the hole saw in the body trick. Ive had to take out my T-bars a couple of times since the initial install, removal/ install is a matter of jacking the car up and pulling the bars out through the hole! So easy a cmc driver could do it