Thread: Sway bar 33mm vs 30 mm - Dorman - will the 33mm work on my car?

That's more than enough, as the sway bar moves up, the tie rod will too.

If you wanted to check the clearance at the other end of suspension travel, put the jack on the spindle and start jacking it up. Just make sure the jack is in a place it won't slip off, and the axle stands are still in place, rear wheels chocked.

Conclusion:

The 33mm bar will work so here are some note for anyone about to go thru this. For me, since I was replacing my struts and control arms, this made it very easy to pull the anti-sway bar out as I could put up on the wheel assembly giving the bar the room needed to twist/spin and get it out.

With the new bar sitting in there I made the mistake of tossing the bushing over the bar, soaped up the bushing so the U-clamps slid over easier, then put the bolts in but just barely screw them in as it takes roughly 1000 turns to get the bolt down 3 threads, so little swing room. DO NOT DO THIS, I thought it would be easier to have those slightly in place now as to later - wrong - left little room to lift up on the bar to get the bushings in place.

So 2 hours later after pulling those out, I can now swing the bar up just enough to get the bushing in (sway bar to control arm) because the sway bar keeps hitting the tie-rods. With stuff still loose I quickly threw in the anti-sway bar bushings and U-clamps, slightly tightened and then went back to adjust the bushings and noticed my sway bar was just slightly too far to the drivers side and damn near hitting the rubber axle boot - son of !! - back to pulling those U-clamps and bolts, another 5 hours.

HINT - get that damn bar lined up left to right after you get the end bushings in place on the control arms, leave those bushing as loose as goose as you'll need all the clearance you can get to lift the sway bar up and get those bushings into place, then snap down the U-clamps (lots of hand soap). BUT WAIT - don't put the bolts in, go back and make sure your bar didn't move, check the distance on both sides - now you can slowly tighten things down but not too much as you need to put weight on the wheels (see youtube, this is a good video How To Install Replace Broken Sway Bar Impala Venture Montana Grand Prix 97-05 1AAuto.com - YouTube)

I thought for sure this wouldn't fit, the bends were different making too tight, bar too close to axle and up against the tie rods but once things were bolted down and full weight on the wheels all looks good. After two days of driving I came back and gave the bushings a couple more twists to tighten them (not sure how tight they should be) and all is good. The new control arms fixed the loud metal clunk I'd hear when breaking or turning a corner, although I do still hear a clunk but nothing like before. I think the new control arms have play in them. The monroe shocks make my car about an inch higher but the ride is nice, and I went with the slightly more expensive model even thought I probably won't have the car too much longer. Runs nice but Im leaking oil from the front rocker gaskets or something, power steering is dripping and moaning (replaced once) and ABS break light comes on in the winter. Hopefully the kids can drive it to school in a year or two.

This sounds like you took the most compliceted way to make this work. For future reference just having the wheels off and the rear-subframe bolts loosened about 1/2" will make the bar fit easily. Then you put the endlinks on, and then finally the midpoint bushings, should not take more than 45 minutes if you have racheting wrenches for the pita bolt under the brake lines.

Response to addzradd, please keep in mind I was also replacing my struts/shocks, and the control arms, which is why I said this made things much easier. As for removing the rear subframe bolts I did not have to do this, in fact I don't even know where those bolts are located and fear remoting them would open a whole new can of worms. I'd have to see this on a video before I'd feel comfortable doing it.

I have that bar in my 05, I just took the calipers and rotors off the front and wiggled it in, took maybe 20 minutes?

Toss those ****ty ass bushings though, energy suspension has nice poly bushings. Their 34mm ones work perfectly.