Installing Suspension Techniques Swaybars On Your First Generation Neon

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I have a first generation "Highline" Neon.  This car came with a 20mm front swaybar and no rear bar.  R/T, ACR, and Sport models came with a 22mm front and 16mm rear bar.  Needless to say, my Neon has more body roll than the "Performance Trim" Neons, though it has less weight (manual windows, manual door locks, no tilt steering, no rear wing, no foglights).   I've been wanting to fix this for a while, but hadn't gotten around to it.  Since I've been laid off recently by the all-mighty Microsoft, I had time and some severence pay to do so.

I had considered getting the Eibach swaybar kit, that comes with a 24mm front bar, and as reported by some, a 21mm rear bar, but then I did some research and found the rear bar to actually be 19mm.  If you check Eibach's Site on their Neon Kit, you'll find the following:

DODGE, Neon, 2 & 4-door - 1995-1999

Product	Front	Rear	Comments	Part Number
ANTI-ROLL-KIT	24mm sn	19mm sn		2815.320

Oops.  Looks like Eibach says it's a 19mm bar.  I didn't want a 19mm rear bar, I wanted something bigger, since I like a neutral to mild oversteer setup in my cars.  Understeer is something I wish didn't exist!

I could have gone for the Mopar items, but even from the discount mailorder dealers of the MP parts, it was quite expensive.  The front and rear bars as of September 2003 were at $98 each, plus $65 for the rear bar installation kit needed for a car that didn't have a rear bar originally, plus money for urethane bushings (Another $20+ just for the front), it just wasn't price competitive, though the rear bar is 22mm.  The old ones were adjustable, the new ones aren't, or I'd have been tempted.

Looking around, I found the Suspension Techniques kit claimed to be a 24mm front bar and 21mm rear bar.  This seemed a good balance to me, and it came with all required bushings and hardware, other than the brackets for the rear bar.  Still, from Jegs.com, I managed to pick it all up for $268 shipped, plus it was in stock, unlike Summit Racing which was a 2-3 week backorder.  Modern performance had them, but wanted over $320 for the set with the required rear bar adapter kit before shipping.

I ordered from Jegs, and the bars arrived a few days later, though UPS goofed and delivered the package for the rear bar brackets a day late, though they shipped as one shipping order.

What You'll Need

• Suspension Techniques Swaybar kit - Jegs Part Number 876-52002)
• Suspension Techniques Adapter Kit (Only for cars with no rear bar) - Jegs part number 876-55335
• Jack, jackstands, common mechanics tools
• Torque Wrench reccomended
  

Pictures of What You Should Have

Here's some pictures of the swaybar set hardware:


Present are bolts for the end links, two heim joints, a number of urethane endlink bushings, urethane rear swaybar bushings, and a number of cup washers (stacked in this photo) and the bushing lube.   The nuts are all nylock locking units so they don't come loose inadvertantly.

The biggest thing you'll notice is the steel brackets.  These replace the stock units if you have them, and provides them if you don't have them.  The stock units are thin steel, and tend to flex.  You can purchase aftermarket stiffened brackets, but there's no need if you get the ST kit, since these are significantly thicker and stiffer than stock.  Not pictured are the "adapter kit" brackets, which are little more than stock mopar brackets and a couple bolts.  These are the brackets that hold the swaybar bushings to the subframe.  Thus far I'm impressed by what's included in the package, from what I've seen the Eibach kit includes little more than stock hardware, and I'm confident I made the right choice.

Installation

Realize that I have a Highline Neon, so it has no stock rear bar, so I can't say much about the stock components of that rear bar.  I'll explain what I know, however.

First up, jack the car up and get it on jackstands.  You can do just the front, rear, or both, it doesn't matter what order you do this.  Take the wheels off, you might be able to leave the front ones on, but it'll be easier if you remove them all.  Take the opportunity to rotate your tires if you've not done it in a while.

Front Bar

Unbolt the stock bar.  You'll need a 13mm wrench and a 13mm socket to do this.  Unbolt the end links first, they come off in three pieces, then unbolt the brackets that hold the bar and its bushing to the k-frame.  It should drop free.  Keep only the brackets and the bolts, you won't need the stock end links, these are replaced by the ST bar kit.

Lube the inside of the round swaybar bushings.  Use rubber gloves, or else you'll never get the grease off your fingers.  Supposedly WD40 works, but I never needed to try it out since I wore gloves.  Don't be shy with it, use the entire packet, there's a seperate packet for the rear bushings.  Snap them over the new bar, be careful, it'll be tough to do and if you get your finger caught, it'll hurt like hell.  Get under the car, you might want a friend to help here.  Lift the bar into position, and bolt it in using the stock brackets.  Get them good and tight, the bar will still rotate on the lube. 

Assemble the endlinks by taking the long bolt, and sliding a cup washer down on to it, followed by a endlink bushing with the raised side up, the flat side against the cup washer.  Slide it through the end of the swaybar, followed by another bushing with the raised side down, and a cup washer.  Slide on a cup washer above that, followed by another bushing.  Side the bolt through the hole in the control arm, then a bushing, again, raised side down, then a cup washer, then thread on the nylock nut.  Do the same to the other side.  Torque them down using a 14mm wrench and socket until the bar end holes come up into the bushings and become flush, and the bushings deform slightly.

That's all there is to it.  Here's a picture of the installed bar. 

The right photo is of course the installed bar.  You can see the Quickor suspension bobble strut in the picture too.  I'm not a big fan of red bushings, but at least they're all red.  The right picture is the top bushing of the swaybar endlink.  Note the nylock nut.

Rear Bar

Take the wheels off first of course.  I again had no rear bar stock, so I'll approach this assuming you don't either.  If you do have a rear bar, simplly unbolt everything, keeping only the brackets that hold the swaybar to the frame and the associated bolt.  The rest is junk, not needed by the ST rear bar.  Don't reuse the stock brackets that bolt to the strut, they won't work with the design of the ST bar most likely, and the ST units look more than sufficient stiffness wise.  If you still want to use them, take a closer look, perhaps they can be modified or reused, I can't say since I don't have them in front of me.  Use your own judgement.

Undo the nuts from the two big bolts that bolt the strut to the lower suspension.  DO NOT REMOVE THE BOLTS.  This will possibly goof up your alignment if you do.  The bolt end is 15mm, the nut is 18mm.  Once the nuts are off, slide in the proper bracket.  They are side specific, so make sure you get the proper one, it should be fairly obvious.  The curve of the bracket should go toward the middle of the car, so it clears the drum brake or disc brake on the rear.  Bolt it back on to factory torque, in other words, damn tight.  Do the same to the other side.

Lube the swaybar bushings, again using gloves.  Snap them on to the bar.  Grab a buddy preferably, and thread it over the rear suspension and over the exhaust.  Use the brackets that came with the adapter kit, or if you had the stock ones, re-use them, and bolt the bar up to the frame.  The holes to do this are on the outboard frame rail near the rear wheel well.  You might want to spray the holes out with WD-40 or similar, especially if you live in a region with a lot of salt, etc.  Here's a picture of the installed swaybar bushings:


Take the long bolt for one of the end links.  Put a washer on, then a cup washer, then an end link bushing, flat end toward the cup washer once again.  Thread through the hole in the rear bar, then add another bushing, another cup washer, and the spacer.  Thread on the narrow non-nylock nut all the way up to the end of the spacer.  Leave it loose enough that you can move the bolt around in the bushings.  Don't torque it down so it can't move yet, you need some flex in it for the next step.

Spin on one of the heim joints until it buts up against the nut.  Put in the shorter crossbolt with a washer on it through the bracket on the strut, then the spacer on the other side of the bracket.  Then put the bolt through the opening in the heim joint, followed by a washer and the nylock nut.  It will be a difficult fit, but you shouldn't see any threads of the bolt between the heim joint and the nut.  Then use a 14mm open end wrench to hold the thin nut, and a ratchet with a 14mm socket to torque it all down.  Make sure the nut is tight against the heim joint as well.  Only tighten until the bushings start to deform slightly. 

Here's how the end link should look installed:

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