Fitting front swabar to VY/VZ and possibly VT/VX

[Surfwagon]

I recently fitted a new Whiteline adjustable front 30mm swaybar to my VZ senator and thought this might help those people thinking of doing it them selves but thought it too hard.

Its not too difficult and I did it by myself with one trolley jack and 3 stands.
With 2 people would be a lot easier.
The whole K frame needs to be dropped down as the bar sits on top.
I found it easier to put the front on stands under the chassis behind the front wheels.
Chock the sump with an extra stand and wooden block, I found the screw type stand perfect for this as I was able to adjust the stand until it was taking the weight of the engine.
Remove the nuts holding the engine mounts to the frame.
Undo all the power steer brackets from the front of K frame.
Remove the front castor bush and radius rod from lower control arm.
then remove the swaybar D bracket bolts but leave the upright links conncted to take weight off the K frame.
Disconnect steering gear from shaft
Then undo all 4 K frame bolts and lower the K frame as far as you can ( with 2 people you can easily handle this without a jack).
The frame will only drop as far as the still connected steering rods and lower control arm will allow.
Undo the swaybar to strut links and manouvre the old bar out taking note of where the Power steer line sit in relation to the swaybar.
Instal is basically the reverse just guide the engine mount bolts thru the K frame and make sure when all back together and lined up go back and remove each K fame bolt one at a time use some threadlocker and lots of torque on each bolt.
start with the fronts as they actually locate the frame square to the chassis.
The rears sit in a larger hole and don't locate the frame but help hold it up.
As you can see it also a good time to replace the front castor bush and the rear bush if you so wish as taking the radius rod out makes it a lot easier to drop the K frame.
check everything like engine bay bolts, steering gear connection, pwr steer brackets etc.
Took me about 4hrs taking it slowly so as not to injure myself or break something.

[SuperSixty6]

Good write up Surfwagon,

However - I think it would be great if you could through in; On road conclusions before and after. Was it a worthwhile enhancement?

Cheers.

[Surfwagon]

This thread was purely desighned for people who want to replace their swaybar as most of those people already want to do it and know what the benefits are.
Anyway the body roll was reduced significantly set on the middle hole which according to whiteline is 30mm, with the closer hole being like 31mm bar and the furthest hole being like using a 29mm bar, std HSV bar is 28mm.
I already have a 18mm whiteline rear swaybar fitted up from std HSV 14mm senator bar, ( believe the clubby and R8 use a 15mm rear bar).
btw I believe that dropping the whole K frame is only needed when removing and replacing the VZ bar as the VX-VY2 bar is flatter on the side ends and can be manouvred out by just dropping the front of the K frame.
Unfortunately the VZ bar has a big droop which doen't lend it self to being manouvred out with frame dropped at the front only.
In conclusion definitely a worthwhile enhancement.