Well, the bushings that Racing Beat ship with their swaybar require regular greasing. Of course, I only realized it when the swaybar started squeeking on bumps. Not so bad, its pretty easy to unbolt the swaybar enough to pull the bushings out, clean it all up and grease em up.

Well, Here comes the problem. All but one of the nuts was cross threaded, requiring some WD40, a hammer, a set of vice grips. The threads on the bolt are toast. Replacing the bolt should be simple enough, but I can't find a way to get the bolt off of the front cross member.

I would be very very greatful if someone could take a look at theirs and see if they can't figure out a good way to take the bolt off.

For those that need a visual, the bolts where #4 mounts, the lower one is the one stripped:

http://www.shmoo.com/~bmc/susp.png

it's not a bolt, it's a permanent stud

you need to get a thread cutting die and run over it to restore the threads, I'll try to get the thread info for you so you can buy one

if that doesn't work you'll have to get a body shop to repair it for you

Fsck. Thats what I was thinking, and hoping it wasn't. Thanks for looking for me!

Brian

I am curious as to you need to re-grease the bushings again.
There is no mention of that in the instructions.
http://www.racingbeat.com/PDF/14018.PDF
There was a post a while ago about torquing the front bolts tight to prevent noise, were you aware of the post below?
http://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php?p=451266&postcount=23

I ask because I too have Racing Beat sway bars, I put mine on 10/2004 and have since put 14,000 miles on them. How long have yours been on and about how many miles?

I am curious as to you need to re-grease the bushings again.
There is no mention of that in the instructions.
http://www.racingbeat.com/PDF/14018.PDF
There was a post a while ago about torquing the front bolts tight to prevent noise, were you aware of the post below?
http://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php?p=451266&postcount=23

I ask because I too have Racing Beat sway bars, I put mine on 10/2004 and have since put 14,000 miles on them. How long have yours been on and about how many miles?

When I installed the bar in the first place, I torqued them fairly low, but after bending one of the end links, I torqued everything down to the high end of the suggested settings.

When I pulled off the bushings, they were dry as a bone, and the groves were well past half gone. Aftermarket swaybars I've owned on other cars had grease fittings on the bushings, with instructions stating to hit it with the grease gun fairly regularly.

IIRC, I installed the swaybar in June of 04 with only 2000 miles. I'm now just over 20k.

I had one of those bolts snap on me. Driving along and then a big bang from the back of the car.

The bolts are just tach welded at the heat.

To fix I cut off the the rest of the bolt sticking out, then grabbed a hardened drill bit and drilled the centre of the bolt out. Once this was done all I was left with was the remains of the bolthead for which I filed down the head of a large flathead screwdriver and then used it and a hammer to sort of chisel the remains off.

Once done I replaced with a new High tensile stainless steel bolt.

It took a while though.

Best of luck!

I had one of those bolts snap on me. Driving along and then a big bang from the back of the car.

The bolts are just tach welded at the heat.

To fix I cut off the the rest of the bolt sticking out, then grabbed a hardened drill bit and drilled the centre of the bolt out. Once this was done all I was left with was the remains of the bolthead for which I filed down the head of a large flathead screwdriver and then used it and a hammer to sort of chisel the remains off.

Once done I replaced with a new High tensile stainless steel bolt.

It took a while though.

Best of luck!


What sway bars do you have intalled? Reason asking is that I also had one of these mounting studs/bolts shear in half. Just knocked it out and replaced with a high strength bolt. I have the RB sway bars, and the bushings were greased during installation and everything torqued to specs.

The bolt is an M10 x 1.25 metric, this is the cutting die you'll need to restore the threads

you can order one through mcmastercarr.com if you can't find it local

if you've never used a cutting die before you have to get it started straight then screw it on like a nut except making 1/4 turn followed by backing off 1/8 turn, and keep repeating this until you're all the way done. The backing off turn removes the excess chips out of the die threads and is very important. Do not try to just screw it straight on all the way down.

you may need a new nut too

Wow, I have the racing beat rear sway and that exact same bolt on my car broke off as well!

The bolt is an M10 x 1.25 metric, this is the cutting die you'll need to restore the threads

you can order one through mcmastercarr.com if you can't find it local


Many many thanks!

None of the hardware stores around here had appropriate bolts or dies for me to check the good nut I've been carrying with me since I took off my swaybar. I'll let ya know how it goes.

Mark, right? Hopefully I'll be at nationals and can buy you a beer in thanks!

Thanks again!
Brian

:D :D :D :D :D :D

None of the hardware stores around here had the appropriate dies. Your suggestion of mcmastercarr.com had it in stock, and shipped it overnight for next to nothing. I ordered the hex version, which made it VERY easy to make sure I kept the die appropriate lined up.

I had a deep socket long enough to fit over the die and lay flush on the plate. That made cleaning the threads with the die VERY easy, since I didn't have to worry about keeping the die appropriately lined up. Just get the die started, and use the socket to keep it lined up.

Everything is all back together and all is good.

THANKS TeamRX8!

I see you reg'd for the NEDIV, which is in my backyard but I'll be in Vegas for DEFCON. (Big hacker con) Hopefully, I'll be at the toledo pro/nats so I can say thanks in person.

no problem, glad you got it fixed

I may run the Denver Tour that weekend instead