DIY: Whiteline CD Accord Rear Sway on CB Accord
Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!
So I was after a heavy duty rear sway bar for my 92 Accord. The options as I saw it were:
- Progress from USA (Roughly $400 shipped)
- Suspension Techniques from USA (about the same)
- Whiteline CD Accord bar($175 from Underground Imports)
The good news is, CD Accord (94-97) suspension is exactly the same as CB Accords (91-93) plus Whiteline simply use the stock mounting points. Easy.
On with the DIY. I only took photos at the end because i was in a hurry so hopefully they will be ok. This DIY assumes that you had a stock swaybar and therefore have all the mounting brackets and endlinks. If you didn't have one, like me, you will need extra parts from the wreckers. Let me know if you want more detail.
This is the steps I had to take. If you have your exhaust positioned differently or can squeeze things in better you may not have to remove as many parts as I did.
0. Jack the rear of the car up and rest it on floor stands. Remove the two rear wheels.
1. Remove the bolt connecting the left rear control arm to the cross member (Red arrow) and push it out of the way.
3. Remove the bolt connecting both control arms to the right rear hub (Green arrow). Big mother of a thing. Also remove the bolt connecting the further forward of the two control arms on the right to the cross member (Blue arrow). You should be able to remove this control arm now.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/8526/pic1apk1.jpg
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/7557/pic2kv5.jpg
http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/3640/pic1bx2.jpg
4. Remove the D Brackets (Black arrow above) and the end link bolts. Now you should be able to remove the old swaybar.
5. Get your new bushings that came with the swaybar and put lube (that also came with it) all over them. Fit the new D bracket bushings into the old D brackets. Fit the new end link bushings onto the swaybar and trim off any excess.
6. Fit the new swaybar the same orientation as the old one that you removed. Should look like the pictures above. If you can get under your car when it is lowered don't tighten the bolts all the way. If you can't get under there then just do them all the way up.
7. Refit all the parts you took out in the reverse order. May need some levering and bashing here and there to get things to line up.
8. Fit your wheels back on and lower the car off the jack stands. Now get under there and tighten up all the swaybar bolts properly.
That should be it. Let me know if I've missed anything.
