Refitting front anti roll bar

[Henk]

Simple job, so it seems but not for me. Removed it to renew the rubber mounts (which fit in the brackets which are bolted to the subframe). Removal was easy, but refitting can't be done for some reason. The connection between bar and lower trailer arm will not align properly. Some force has been used already but it's no solution...
Any help?

[Magenta Auto Sprint]

No real suggestion, i had trouble fitting the poly bushes to the anti roll bar, so much trouble in fact that i ended up fitting standard bushes, i just could not compress the assembley and get a bolt in at the same time.

[Jon Tilson]

Its not too bad a job if you apply some basic principals...

Its an anti roll bar...ergo its under minimum stress and spring load when the car is sitting still on its wheels. Of course as soon as you jack it up one side it goes under load....and then you cant get it to fit.

The way to do it is this like this....Unbolt it from the car completely and renew any rubbery bits as required. Then with the car sitting on its wheels refit it to the drag strut, dont forget the little tube thingy that sits in the drag strut and loosely refit the nuts so it cant pop out but can still move about a bit. Then refit the subframe dangly mountings...bolt goes in from the back of the sub frame
and again dont tighten anything until both mounts are in place and all 4 bolts are through the mountings. Then tighten it all up and bob's your uncle. Doddle.

Jonners

[sprint95m]

Fitting the ARB polybushes requires a little trick, which is to compress the bushes beforehand.

With the anti-roll bar removed from the car, I slid the bushes into position on the bar
and then fitted the clamps. I left this overnight.
The next day, when I fitted the ARB, the bushes were now possible to fit.
It was not that easy.
It is surely worth the effort though as poly is much better than rubber in this location
and lasts longer too.



In answer to Henk's original question, I loosely fitted the ARB links into the tie bars first.
Then I fitted the clamps.
This was done with the subframe supported on axle stands.
It may help to have the shock absorbers disconnected?
When I reassembled the suspension on my car I left the shock absorbers until last.
(During this process I supported the wishbone/hubs on stands until I was ready to fit the shock absorbers.)



The other polybushes that require compressing beforehand are the back suspension upper arm axle bushes.

[Henk]

Thanks guys, indeed the logical thinking was the problem. I tried to fit it with 'hanging' front suspension. At last I succeeded.