Hello all, I am re-installing the rear sway bar for my 85 308 GTS and had a couple of questions. I searched the site and found that about 45 ft lbs seemed to be the consensus on tightening torque for the sway bar to end link nuts, which are 12 x 1.25 mm. Does that sound correct?The manual says they are 8 x 1.25 mm and recommends a lower torque, but that is the wrong size nut, at least on my car. Secondly, should I use lube or grease between the bushings and the sway bar brackets on the bar and the bushings on the end link? I bought the 'D' sway bar and end link bushings from Superformance and their sight indicates they are rubber. Any advice would be welcomed. Thanks.
In my 308 GT4 WSM, they call for the 12 x 1.25mm nuts to be tightened up to 7 kgm (which converts to 50.7 lbs-ft). I didn't use lube, as the idea of the rubber bushings in this case is to twist to provide motion and even then, whatever lube you might use may react with the rubber and degrade it. When tightening, I loaded up the suspension at ride-height then torqued up the fasteners. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Wow, that suspension is beautiful! Thanks for the replies. I will load the suspension and tighten to torque for those size nuts.
GRRB (Girling red rubber grease) shouldnt affect rubber. I'm not far away from doing my sway bar bushes and I have been thinking about their operation. Surely they the sway bar should be able to turn in the D shaped rubber blocks. Isnt the sway bar there to try to keep both sides of the car level during cornering and under heavy fore and aft loads (braking and acceleration). The reason its made of spring steel is to allow it to twist momentarily when one side of the suspension hits a bump ..... I've considered putting a greasing point in the D bushing to allow it to twist while holding it in a stable position. Is my thinking right that the rubber D mounting is most likely made of rubber only to cut down on noise transmission to the cabin ......... and only somewhat to allow flexability of mounting to the chassis. The old sway bar bushes on my car are disintergrating and its clear they were originally manufactured with a gap in them where they pushed over the sway bar ..... wouldnt they have been better with no gap at all ? If the sway bar is able to slop around where it mounts to the chassis surely it will not be able to keep its end of the car level ?? More information and opinions very welcome ........
The sway-bars do rotate in the D-shaped bushings. The links attaching the sway bars to the A-Arms are fixed (via inner sleeves which are pinched by the shoulder on the sway bar, the washers and the nuts) and should not rotate. The use of rubber for bushings is to eliminate noise transmitting into the passenger compartment. There shouldn't be any gaps in the fit-up of any of those bushings.
Clean suspension looks sooo nice on ferrari's. A shame it's soo much work. I find I'm constantly wiping mine down now after a drive to attempt to keep it fresh. Attached are a few from my project. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
It's funny to notice this, but I guess it's due to the hand-built nature of these cars, but on your car, your drop-link is painted and your sway-bar bushing bracket is yellow-zinc plated. On my car, there was evidence that the drop-links were silver-zinc plated and the sway-bar bushing brackets were painted...
