This bar thing is busted under the front of my son's 91 RS. Can I easily replace it myself without a lift or stands in my garage on the floor? What is it called? and how much $ approx in parts and labor if I take it in to shop. Hopefully its an easy fix I can do myself and just buy the parts . If I can do it myself, any tips will help! Bad shape under there. Lotsa rust and needing floor boards, tie rods and any other bars and suspension parts repaired, probably struts and shocks in back as well. Thanks in advance

 

They are the sway bar end links. You can picks those up for about around 20 bucks eachat auto zone or another auto parts store. But I recomend you replace the front and rear at the same time. Don't be worried if they don't come loose, first you some wd-40 and wait a little bit. But if that doesn;t work just try to tighten the bolt instead of lossening them which will break them off.

 

That's the sway bar bushing/link. The bolt has rusted away to nothing and the swaybar isn't connected. Get the car in the air with a jack and replace both sides. The bushing replacement kit is around $15 for each side.

 

and pick up some antisieze for the new bolt sleeve.

 

Get poly ones, rather than the stock rubber bushings. They're hanging on a card out front at Vato Zone. You'll need to measure your old ones' length though, soecifically the sleeve; they're "universal", and they sell them by length.

As said, USE ANTI-SEIZE ON THE SLEEVES. What happens is that the sleeves rust solid to the bolt, and then they're a royal PITA to get back off, next time you need to take them loose for whatever reason.

 

Looks like yours rusted solid to the bolt as described, and broke the top off. Just get a hack saw or reciprocating saw and cut it anywhere needed to remove. Easiest way is to cut through anywhere a rubber bushing is - then it'll fall out. I had to cut all mine off to replace this way.

 

Ok, I'll get the parts and do it myself. Just need the ends not the whole bar huh?
Thanx all!

 

I went with stock rubbers, made a night and day difference. It drove like a different car. Only 4.99 a piece. Or go with polyshmolly .

 

While your at it, you might want to replace the two center sway bar bushings as well. Replace front and rear sway bar bushings and end links, it'll be money and time well spent.

 

I bet the car will turn in a quick hurry w/o the front sway bar connected.

I would think that the car is dangerous to drive in its current condition.

 

I think they remove the sway bars in the 4 x 4's so that they get more twisting axle motions to crawl over rocks better. BUT - they are going at very slow speeds for this (thus they call it rock crawling). I don't know about dangerous, as long as you used some common sense, but I'd rather have mine in place.

When you install the new ones, get some anti-seize and put it on the bolt after where the metal sleeve goes on - this will prevent it from maybe rusting again like that in the future.

And you just want to torque them down until the rubber (or poly) bushings start to squish I believe. My Haynes book says 165 ft/lbs torque - but if I torqued them that much, the bushings would be flat! So I just torque them down until the bushings start squishing.

If you do the sway bar bushings as well, I'd say get new metal holders too - since you have that much rust occuring.

 

holy cow my car has 3 rust spots on the bottom of the door and i'm ready to scrap the body, wow! thats a lot of rust!!!!!!!!!!

i feel like a whiney babay over 3 spots of rust.... yikes...

 

I changed both front end links on my son's 91 RS and on my 86 Z as well in just a couple hours. That was a piece of cake. The worst part was cutting them off. Had to jack the car up in the right spot to open the the distance between the sway bar and whatever it hooks to. Then I could fit all the bushings and sleeve and washers in there. Then set the car down to squash the stuff to get the nut on. Piece of cake! Thanks All! Next I'm off to fix My son's leaky radiator. It leaks on top someplace on drivers side by the hose connection. Never done a radiator change out yet either!

 

Now get ur son under the car to learn to fix his own car

 

Check and see if it's got plastic tanks (on the sides) and if that's where it's leaking - you can change out the plastic tanks cheaper than the whole radiator.

 

I heard I can change the tanks but, how much cheaper could it be when a new radiator is only $120.00 stock. Thats with tanks and new. I think it's best to replace the whole thing so I don't have all the time and $ in coolant and spring a new leak a month later. Besides It's my sons $ and he seems to be very good at spending mine! I wanna just be done with the radiator worry free and move on to fixing something else. Radiator leaks and steam are embarrassing! It was an unexpected bad surprize since he was only driving the car about 2 weeks and it blew a hole it. Doing just the tanks ya would still have to remove the radiator and I'm sure it's original and I would beat it up a little getting it out. There of course are some bent fins being this old. We'll see what it looks like when I pull it and go from there . Most likely I'll replace it though.
Thanks again.

 

My son and I replaced the rear end links today and it drives so much better. What a difference. I'll do my 86 Z next week.

 

Good to hear. I've changed my fronts, but wasn't sure about the rears. They look alright, but they are still 15 yrs old. I'll get on changing them (eventually).

 

You won't be sorry for changing them. My rears on both cars were not broken either and were original but the fronts were broken on both cars. Of course the old ones are easier to get off if they are already broken no matter what side it is on. Cut em, twist em, or beat on em whatever it takes. The new ones fit right in like no problem.

 

I remember getting my fronts and rears off, was a pain in the *** without anything to cut it. We tried everything, PB BLaster, a torch and we still couldn't get the sleeve off the bolt.

After about 1.5 hours and a couple new 4 letter words, we broke out my friend's air chisel...... imagine my surprise and frustration when it came off in about 3 seconds.

Oh well, at least you got them replaced, I agree, it is much better to drive, feels much more solid.