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.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p266/surfwagon/Image0033.jpg

[feistl]

Alternative...
Jack the car up at the front.
Put a big block of wood between the K-frame and the floor.
Lower the car till the Kframe is sitting firmly on the wood.
Undo the front 2 big bolts holding the Kframe in place
Jack the front of the car up.

This will basically mean the K-frame and engine are sitting on the block of wood, and the chassis is being lifted up by the jack. Slide the sway back in place, lower the jack back down and tighten up the 2 K-frame bolts.

Fairly simple process actually.

Even easier if you've got a hoist as you basically jack the car up to head height, get a long metal bar/pole, lower the K-frame down onto it, undo front 2 bolts, use hoist to lift the car a few mm, slide sway bar in, lower hoist and tighten.

[surfwagon]

I was told to do that by someone on another forum and I tried that but could not manouvre the bar past the the bulge section where the castor bush sits and that was with the rear bolts undone till the last 2 threads.
Also that was with the radius rod still in place, couldn't get enough droop from the K frame.
I just checked the whiteline website and it shows that the VZ bar (BHF61Z) is different shape on the sides than the VT2/VX/VY (BHF14Z) and cannot be slipped easily over the front of the K frame due to the deep hump in the bar.
The VT2-VY bar is almost flat along the sides.

[smokey777]

I just wish holden used a 'proper' A arm for the lower arm. Does anyone make an aftermarket version for VE? I remember when i hooked the swaybar up to the lower a arm on the VN it made a stunning difference instead of it hooked to bottom of strut.