thejerseydevil

This is by far one of the best mods ever! Everyone on the forum was right. I want to thank all of the other great posts regarding the installation. Without those, I wouldn’t have went forward with this mod. I have an '05 w/ the F55 option and while I thought handling was great before, this mod really exploits the true capabilities of the car. WOW.

This brings to me to my long winded and detailed installation post. Before I purchased and went through with this mod, I researched the installation options on the forum. After reviewing the posts, this definitely looked like a DIY mod. In relation to some of the others that have such an impact on the car, this one appeared to be quick and fast. Some of posts stated this was a quick and easy mod, most completed in ½ hour. I thought, that’s the right time for me.

Well, I bought the Z06 sway bars (from Gene @ Fred Beans; great service and prices BTW) and decided to install today. Now let me tell you while this mod isn’t difficult, it took me much longer that ½ hour. I am not questioning the timing or results of the other who posted their installed, just impressed. I don’t know if they have professional equipment or much more experience than me; frankly I’m a novice who does these mods in my driveway with basic tools.

So for any of you out there who are like me with minimal experience, only a driveway, and basic tools, here is my experience and explanation of the install. Again, this was not a hard modification, just took longer and required some creative body movements to get in the positions needed to take off the old and install the new. All of the work is in the labor and worth it!

Oh yeah, I would have had pics but my wife had the camera and I wasn’t waiting for her to get this job done just to take pics. Hope my commentary makes up for the lack of pics.

Tools used/Needed:
• Jack: http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...seBVCookie=Yes
• Socket Set w/ the following sockets: 13mm socket, 13mm long/deep socket, 15mm socket, 18mm socket, 18mm long/deep socket, 2 ratchets, socket extensions
• 1 18mm Wrench 6 pt. Combination (http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...seBVCookie=Yes) NOTE: I found the 18mm combo wrench to be key.
• Jack Stands: http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...seBVCookie=Yes
• Wheel chuck
• Torque wrench that can fit under to torque the bolts
• 6mm hex key (optional for the end links)
• A couple of band aids (and maybe an ice pack)
• (Some people like to add beer or other adult beverage to the list but I found this to be problem as I would focus more on drinking than the task at hand.)
• Something to lay on under the car (if you want)
Tool Breakout:
• Front
o 13mm socket, 13mm long/deep socket, 18mm socket, 18mm Combo or open end wrench, 1 ratchet, socket extensions
• Rear
o 15mm socket, 18mm socket, 18mm Combo or open end wrench, 18mm long/deep socket, 2 ratchets

Preparation:
Park the car somewhere you will be able to get under the front and back easily with some room on the sides to help in the jacking process.

Give yourself some time. Took me about 3 hours in total from moving my car out of the garage to clean up.

From my experience, I would keep small children and anyone who is offended far away from this project. The expletives will be plentiful during this install. I think I used the F word as a noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, and an adverb; all in one sentence a couple of times.

Do some stretches and warm up. You will be contorting your body to get the old one’s off and install the one’s.

Hit the bathroom before you start. Once you start to make progress, you don’t want to get out of position just to make a deposit.

If you smoke, suck in a couple before you start. It may help keep you calm.

Getting Started
Decide which to do first, front or rear. I decided on the rear because that was the easiest to jack up. I am glad I did. Looking back on the install, the rear was much easier than the front.

My suggestion, start with the rear. You will have a sense of accomplishment when you are done and feel good about yourself, like I can do this! Plus, when you finish the front, you’re done.

Rear:
1. Jack up the car:
• Put the car on as a flat a surface as possible
• Emergency brake on, front tires straight. If a 6spd, put the car in gear. Put a chuck under the front tires (best if both but one is ok).
• I jacked up the rear, using the rear jacking point found here (http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1117639) and then put the jack stands on both outer jacking points. I put the jack head in the middle of frame bar and jacked high enough to get the stands on the outer points. I put the stands at 2 clicks high (don’t know the measurements but this was high enough).
2. Scope out the environment. Find all of the bolts/nuts to be removed and look at how the current bar is installed.
• I’m not large guy but not small either (about 6.1 ft and around 225…I like to eat). I found maneuvering in the rear to be ok but my arms were hard to get situated. I had to slide in and a out every time to get a good position that would work (nothing wrong with sliding in and out for position!).
3. Remove the nut from the end links. This is the hardest part of the rear.
• The arm has two bolts: upper which is connected to the car and lower which is connected to rear sway bar. I only removed the lower leaving the arm connected to the car.
• You will need the 18mm socket and ratchet and the 18mm open/combo wrench
• Using the socket, begin to loosen the nut attached to the sway bar.
• Once loosened, the nut and bolt will spin freely. You will need to lock the bolt to remove the nut. There are two ways to do this:
o Either with the 6mm hex key in the center of the bolt (facing you) and the open 18mm wrench to turn or
o (this the method I used) Using the socket and 18mm wrench
• For this method, push the rubber boot back to expose the gold looking nut inside the bolt. The nut (looks like a washer) will be rounded with two flat sides for the 18mm wrench to slide into. Turn the bolt to line up the sides for the wrench to slide on and hold in place.
• Holding the wrench, use the socket to remove the nut. It your car is like mine, these will be tight so keep turning. Just make sure the wrench is holding the inside washer/nut in place to avoid the bolt from turning. Remove the bolt.
• Repeat for the other side
4. Remove the bolts holding the sway bar to the rear of car. There should be 1 nut and 1 bolt on each side. These are located on the connector atop the rubber mounts for the sway bar.
4.1 Bottom bolt removal (It doesn’t matter which you do first but I did the bottom first.):
• Bottom nut: The bottom nut is connected to a bolt that runs the length of the square piece the mount is attached to.
• First, loosen the bottom nut. Use the 18mm long socket. This was fun because mine where tighter than my pants after thanksgiving day. Getting leverage wasn’t easy. But, with a little effort, and lots of grunts, I managed to turn that bad boy (I’m no Arnold but I’m no girly man either. Trust me, these were on tight!)
• Once loosened, take the other socket wrench with the 15mm socket and position the socket on the front of the bolt under the square metal box the sway bar connector and bushings are connected to. I couldn’t see it but could feel it. (Note, I tried to use an open/combo wrench but couldn’t get the grip needed. The wrench would slide off. The socket held in place.)
• While holding the top of the nut with the other socket, remove the nut.
• Repeat on the other side
4.2 Top bolt removal – a little easier; keep in mind, once these bolts are removed, the sway bar will be disconnected from the car. This is where a little creative body movement comes into play. You’ll need to hold the bar with one hand while removing the final bolt.
• Before you remove, make a mental not of how the sway is currently installed. You will need install the new one in the same position. (I inadvertently turned mine backwards the first time because I was in a rush and had to come back out from under the car, turn it around and go back in for the install.)
• Using the short 18mm socket, loosen the bolt. Again, this was tight (almost as tight as Olivia Newton John’s pants in Grease…nice!) but a little effort and viola, loosened.
• This bolt will get removed.
• Repeat for the other side
5. Remove old sway bar
6. Remove the metal clips from the old sway bar (currently attached to the rubber mounts). Note how they are attached.
7. Get the correct bar by matching the format of the old to the new
8. Slide on the new rubber mounts in the same position as the old
9. Push the metal clips onto the rubber bushings. Install in the correct direction based on the old bar.
10. Install the new bar
• Get your nuts ready! Your bolts too. Have them in a position that you can grab easily while holding the bar under the car.
• Slide under with the bar in the right direction and the metal clips positioned to be reattached
• Grab one top bolt and while hold the sway bar, screw in the bolt with your hand. Do the same for the other side. This will hold up the sway bar do you can continue with the install
• Install the nut onto the existing bolt
• Hand tighten these only, no tools yet
• With the bar in place, attached the end link bolt through the hole on the sway bar. Attach the nut by hand. Repeat for the other side.
• Make sure the bar is aligned and is center. Once it looks good, tighten the bolts.
• Here’s a stupid tip because I make this, and made this mistake again, be sure to switch the ratchet lever from loosen to tighten. I’m under there turning and turning wondering why nothing is getting tight. Remember, I said I am an amateur!
• Tighten the top bolts first
• Tighten the bottom nut next. Remember to use the 15mm socket to hold the bolt in place from the rear while tightening the nut w/ the 18mm deep socket. Don’t over tighten; torque’ing (I made up a word) will come, holster that side arm until the time is right.
• Tighten the arm bolts using the 18mm socket and 18mm open/combo wrench (remember how you took them off?). Use the open wrench to hold the gold washer/nut and tighten the nut with the socket. Stop when it is tight.
• Let’s torque! Here are the torque settings from another post (http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...ight=sway+bars):
o clamp bolt- 49lb-ft
o clamp nut- 70lb-ft
o end link- 53lb-ft
• I did the arm/end link first since I was just working on it.
• Do the bolt and then nut
11. Slide out and take a breath. Admire your accomplishment.
12. Clean up old parts and tools. You don’t want to lose or misplace anything. You need these tools for the front.
13. Reinstall the jack and raise high enough to remove the jack stands
14. Lower the car

Front:
1. Jacking the car up
Nothing is easy. Of course this is no exception. I didn’t get a racing jack so the Sears jack didn’t fit under the front of car (no clearance). As a quick solution to get this up for the jack stands, I used the lift points on the frame rail (by the front of either door). Worked good. Jacked up the car same height as in the rear. Put both jack stands and ready to go.
2. Survey the area
• Check out the front bar. A little tricky that then the rear.
• Specifically, look at the arm/end link up front. The point connected to the sway bar is in a hard to get to spot. Keep that in mind.
3. How to attack the front end link
• I read the posts before doing this install and found they were a couple of different ways to attack this:
1. Take off the tire and get to the end link nut from inside the wheel well
2. Remove the link bolt connected to the car and remove with the sway bar. Remove the end links when the bar is off the car, then reattached to the new sway bar while off the car
and install the upper to the car.
3. Use some creative arm movements to get the socket and wrench just right so you can remove the link attached to the bar (just like in the rear). Probably the most challenging but isn’t that the point of doing these things! Challenges are fun…
• I went with option 3. Why not? Avoided taking the tires off and since I had to get the link off anyway, why not save a step and just remove one end instead of both. How hard could this be?
4. Removal of the end links
• Get the 18mm socket, ratchet, and 18mm open/combo wrench. The socket extensions came in handy for me.
• Using the same method as in the rear, loosen the lower nut (connected to the bar). Once loose, find the straight sides of the washer/nut under the rubber boot. Turn the nut if need to get this into the best position.
• I did the drivers side first. I was able to lay flat on my back and slide in to get to the bolt/washer. With my right hand, I had the open wrench up into the fender well so I could position onto the nut from the top of the end link.
• Using the socket extension and 18mm deep/long socket, I was able to use my left hand to get the socket onto the nut angling through the frame. It was tight and couldn’t ratchet much at each turn but you’ll get it.
• Do the same thing for the passenger except I switched hands.
• That was the hard part!
5. Remove the rubber mount bolts
• Using the 13mm socket, loosen the bottom nut. As with the rears, these were as tight as Daisy Dukes short (both the TV series and movie). You got to yank on it to get it to move, but how good does it feel when you get movement!
• The upper nuts require either and extension or long socket. Yank until it moves.
• Holding on to your bar, twist your nuts till they come out. Don’t let go of your bar while these are coming. Keep a good grip. The bar is heavy.
6. Get out from under the car with the bar
7. Remove the metal clips from the rubber boots
8. Install the new boots and clips following the old as a guide.
9. Ensure the new bar is in the correct position for the install
10. Get your bolts and tools ready. Somewhere close so when you under the car you can get to them
11. Install the new bar
• The new bar is heavier than the old (it should be). Have the 13mm bolts ready.
11.1. Bolts
• Holding the bar, install the 13mm bolts by hand
• Tighten with socket wrench but not all the way. Leave some flexibility for adjustment.
11.2: End Links
• Install the end link bolt into the sway bar hole
• Put the nut on by hand and screw as far as you can
• Maneuvering your hands and arms, use the 18mm open/combo wrench to lock the end link nut/washer
• Use the 18mm socket to tighten the nut.
• Don’t get too excited and screw too tight. Finish with a little torque!
• Repeat for the other side
• Torque ‘em up:
o end link- 53lb-ft
11.3: Torque clamp bolts
• clamp bolt- 43lb-ft
12. Raise the car and remove the jack stands
13. Clean up the tools and put old bars away
14. It’s Miller time! Unless you’re taking it for a spin.

That’s it. Long I know but I was trying to give the novice my experience…you know, now that I am an expert (just kidding).

The only thing you need to decide is Z51 or Z06 bars.

Well worth the install challenge. The car handles so much better, and I didn’t think that was possible. This is one mod you gotta do!

If this note helps just one person, my job is done.

Best of luck and thanks again to the other members who helped me through my install.

jsk96z28

great job on this.

AFVETTE

There is a reason the Z51 ans Z06 exist and it wasn't for marketing, it was for this:


On the other hand if you like the car with just this mod, you should try the entire package.

Tom

nalto

I'am a slow methidical worker too, my dad used to call me an artist when I'd paint the house because I took so long. How long did it take you so I can budget enough uninterupted time from the wife and kids.

duelly777

Great write up! Are Z06 and Z51 sway bars the same? Thanks. I'm adding this mod now!

AFVETTE

Fronts are the same, the rears are different in that the Z06 bar is slightly bigger. That's what I punt on my Z51.

Tom

427Z

you win the prize for longest post...sheesh

DT

Excellent post!

re: underlined item below:

I like to use this equation to determine my actual time:

DT_INSTALL_TIME = STATED_INSTALL_TIME X (BEER X QTY) X (DISTANCE_FOR_TOOL_PURCHASE_IN_MILES / 5)

It's surprisingly accurate

Monts

Well done, fantastic write up!

I had a feeling that while it is an easy mod, the first time is the thoughest (and longest).

After reading all the previous posts and beginning to gather up and purchased the tools I did not have, I decided to let a pro do it. I watched him from start to finish, which was about one hour including lifting the car up.

Bottom line, it is a great mod no matter how you get it done. The satisfaction from doing it yourself is icing on the cake, including a write up such as yours, priceless!

Wayne O

Congratulations on your accomplishment and for the great, detailed write-up. Good job!

You described the process well enough a monkey could do it. The only thing you could do to make the install easier (now that you're an expert) is to hire out and install them for others. The Z06 sway bars are a great addition....especially for the money.

thejerseydevil

It took me about 3 hours start to being all cleaned up and ready to roll.

thejerseydevil

Thanks to everyone for the kind words.

TexJeep

Hey! With those good instructions, even I could do that. Thanks for the good, detailed post.

talon90

Excellent write-up.

thejerseydevil

I've done so many mods to my car, at some point I need to be done. I think I've reach the legal limit of mods for my wife...and I need her to be happy so my car doesn't become home!

Maalox

ricatthebeach

One other option...T1 bar. Fred Beans sells them. Installation is the same except they come with their own end links that have an up/down adjustment.

Great job posting very complete instructions. I'm impressed!

Did you lubricate the rubber bushings before installing them?

BTW...front bar are the same on Z51 & Z06

Wass

It took me more than 1/2 hour to read your instructions!!




Just kidding...Great instructions. I have the Z51 sways on my F55 and really like the difference it made.

RedHot

Excellent job. Thats exactly what I needed for this mod.

LS6dude

so the only difference between the Z51 sway bar and the Z06 is that the Z06 is slightly bigger?

Where do you feel the difference in performance?