front sway bar R&R - any tricks?

[Charles Baer]

Well... I haven't done this since, yesterday!

Used a cheapo small floor jack in addition to a 3.5ton (same trick
when I did my sedan) to reinsert the bushing/plate/nut on the avant.

With both the lower control, steering rod NOT on, car on stands:
- inserted the bar end on both sides
- raised the strut w/ the big jack
- raised the bar w/ the small jack and a block of wood
- snuck 'em up just enough to align the bar end to fit the rear parts in

I never had to crank more than a few inches, not nearly enough to
worry about unbalancing the chassis on the jackstands.

There's so much swing in the steering arms I think you could do it with
them attached.  Just make sure the jacks are aligned properly to avoid
creating an angle that will shoot it out from under the car, the wheels
on mine were more than wide enough to create a safe platform to compress
the front coil.  Same with the sway bar, mine didn't need much force to
center the threaded end in the lower arm hole.

Charlie

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave C [mailto:conner at cfm.Ohio-State.edu]
> Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 10:17 PM
> To: 200q20v at audifans.com; quattro at audifans.com
> Subject: front sway bar R&R - any tricks?
>
>
> Is there a trick to installing the front sway bar on the type
> 44?  I've
> done it a few times but it always turns into a mighty
> struggle.  I assume
> there's a better way ... but I haven't found the right combination of
> things to adjust (weight on/off the wheels, etc) to get the
> ends inserted
> into the control arms without a fight.
>
> I'm finishing up a rebuild of the front end on my 87 5kq and will be
> dealing with this soon.
> -----------------
> Dave C.
> ____