*Did You Know* (Protege5) '02 and 03.5 rear sway bar endlinks are different?

[|Thrax|]

O.G. Sk8ter and I were installing my AWR sway bar Monday, and I almost ruined my stock endlink. Being the nice guy that he is, he decides to give me his old ones, well we get back to my house. Bolt them up and then.. (dunno) they are diff. sizes. The 02's are a bit longer.

My AWR bar kicks ass, we both went out and flaunted our cars after that. (pics to come soon)

 

[azeli73]

Wonder why the 03's are smaller? And yes those brass nuts to the end links are crap. very soft and easy to strip...

 

[FuNwaGoN]

hmmm I have a 2002.5 I wonder if they are any different. I really want to do a rear sway bar but have strayed away due to all of the threads about the stock endlinks being broken off. Keep us aprised of how yours does. Also you were using stock endlinks right? And if you want to see how crappy those brass nuts are for the endlinks just look at my thread of Stripped Swaybar Endlink Nut. I massacared the damn thing. thank god for dremels. My next couple of mods are going to be all suspension and I would love to add the rear bar to that list. Post some pics and some more impressions. Also are you running lowering springs?

 

[|Thrax|]

No lowering springs, just whats in my SIG.

I had to use a Nut buster to get the pass side top endlink nut off. Chopped that baby right in half, then Patrick gave me his old brass ones.

BRASS NUTS SUCK! :mad:

I plan on adding energy bushings like mazdadan has.

 

[o.g.sk8er]

Yea, sure was a PITA!! But, all in all, I think you were happy with it, right Chris? Next we will find out how to get your new bushings in. Hey MADZADAN, how about some advice on this? I know you have Energy bushings installed. How did you get those babies on there? Any pick's?

BTW, super fun going through Black Canyon with Chris. Black canyon is like a goat path. Super tight turns, very small lanes, great stuff!!

Hey, Chris, that sport-auto-matic is pretty darn fast.


Patrick

 

[mazdadan]

Hey MADZADAN, how about some advice on this? I know you have Energy bushings installed. How did you get those babies on there? Any pick's?

Unfortunately I don't have any pics right now because my digi cam is broken. I will try and get a few shots of the rear suspension. Basically what I did was chop the AWR aluminum brackets in half. Then I attached the halves to the underside of the crossmember in the holes closest to the ground. I then bent the Energy Suspension brackets to the correct angle and bolted everything back in. It doesn't look super pretty, but it is very secure. I've had them on there for over a year and a half without any issues.

I was reading about how the endlinks were shorter on the 2003.5 in an earlier post. I thought that was interesting. Maybe I got the shorter ones too in my '01 ES, because I had to fabricate longer endlinks for the endlinks to fit with no interference.

 

[o.g.sk8er]

Basically what I did was chop the AWR aluminum brackets in half. Then I attached the halves to the underside of the crossmember in the holes closest to the ground. I then bent the Energy Suspension brackets to the correct angle and bolted everything back in. It doesn't look super pretty, but it is very secure. I've had them on there for over a year and a half without any issues.

Holy-s*** Dan! You cut those beefy brackets? We tried to eliminate those things entirely, (brackets) and still would'nt fit properly.
Maybe we will try something different next week.

Thank's for the response, Dan.

Patrick

 

[mazdadan]

Holy-s*** Dan! You cut those beefy brackets? We tried to eliminate those things entirely, (brackets) and still would'nt fit properly.
Maybe we will try something different next week.

Thank's for the response, Dan.

Patrick

Yeah I wound up cutting them. I used a jig saw to chop them in half, then smoothed them out with my grinder a bit. I had the issue with them not fitting unless the AWR brackets are modified. Aparently the Energy Suspension bushings bolr right up to the MP3 because they use a different rear crossmember.

 

[|Thrax|]

thanks for the tips.