[DeTomaso] Rear sway bar frame mounts

[Will Kooiman]

When I did mine, I had 2 surprises.

First of all, one of the studs broke.  I was careful, maybe not as careful
as you were, but I went very slow.  It still popped off.

Second... this one is fun...  Someone had welded the bracket to the a-arm.
I don't know why they did it, either.  The bolt holes on the a-arms were
fine.  They didn't weld all the way around.  They just did about an inch on
one arm.

I used a heli-coil on the stud as a temporary fix.  Not!  The stud isn't
welded to the frame.  It's welded to a bracket that stands about 3/4" from
the frame.

I fixed it about a month ago.  It isn't that hard.  You have to cut the
bracket on one side, bend/pry it up, slip a bolt through the hole, tack weld
the bolt, and then bend the bracket back and weld it where it was cut.
Grind/paint to make it purdy.  It's a 4 hour job with beer, 6 hours with
beer and friends, or 1 hour if you're trying to get it ready before you can
go somewhere (like beer with friends).

By the way, I prefer the sphere balls that have aluminum brackets.  I have a
set that is plastic.  They make more noise than my ex-wife.  Well... maybe
not that much noise.

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of Asa Jay Laughton
Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2009 11:30 AM
To: detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: [DeTomaso] Rear sway bar frame mounts

Well, -that- was a chore.  In preparation for receiving a set of 
sphereballs and new greaseable bushing for my rear sway bar, I decided 
it was time to remove the old one.

Know that many folks who have never removed the frame mount brackets 
before (at the rear of the car) have broken the bolt portion clean 
off..... I decided to b very cautious in that area.  I started by giving 
them all a coat of a penetrating oil and let it sit for a while.  After 
that I slowly began loosening the nuts.  When a nut became difficult to 
continue, I moved on to the next one, coming back to the other later.  
This went on for nearly an hour, but I finally managed to get all the 
nuts off.  It was a great relief.  So why were they hard to unscrew? 

Well because the undercoating had been applied -after- the sway bar 
mounts had been put on.  DUH!  I had thought as much when inspecting the 
nuts before applying the penetrating oil.  But when the mounts finally 
came off, and I was greeted by nice plain shiny paint underneath... I 
knew for certain.

So this should be a cautionary tale for anyone removing original rear 
sway bar frame mounts.  If you have undercoating in place, please take 
your time, try to clean off as much as you can ahead of time.  People 
have broken these off and it's a bear to set back up because it's not 
just a through-hole bolt, it's welded to the frame and to replace it 
ain't fun.

We have another Pantera member here in Spokane who has a broken one and 
we really need to get after it one of these days.

Things are starting to come together nicely.  All my brakes are now 
installed (no fluid or bleeding yet).  Another Caution, when using the 
Porterfield rear pads, you -must- grind or file down the pin on the back 
of the piston side pad, otherwise you -will- punch a hold in the 
piston... and you really don't want to do that.  I ground mine down with 
a Dremel (yea, yea... I lack the basic he-man shop tools), until it 
cleared the groove in the piston.

I'm considering filling the ZF with lube prior to install, that way I 
know I can get all 3.5 quarts in to it, in one shot, by just tipping the 
tranny sideway.  It should add that much weight, especially as we are 
using an engine hoist to put it in.

Well, off to church for this morning, hopefully I'll get to work on it 
more this afternoon.

Asa Jay

Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired

& Shelley Marie
Spokane, WA

1971 Mach I Mustang  [ASA JAY]
1973 Pantera L 5533  [ASASCAT]
    
******************************     
http://www.asajay.com
http://www.teampanteraracing.com
  


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