So once again I heard the dreaded thunk/crack of my sway bar brackets being torn away from their substandard "upgraded" mounts that I had installed waaay back in November.
The Aussie bar while amazing for cornering is just a bit too strong for the rusty old mounts, even with some reinforment. The original un-reinforced brackets held fine for almost 2 years but eventualy they gave out causing me to repair the subframe and to "upgrade" the brackets.
I recommend that anyone using an Aussie bar check their mounts and reinforce if need be. The only way to properly do this is by dropping the subframe.
So today out came the subframe w/Aussi bar and lower control arms. I set the car on some jackstands and went under to spray PB Blaster on the bolts and nuts I was going to remove. Then I got some lunch and let the PB do it's work. After lunch I went under the car and with air tools it took about 45 min to drop the subframe out of the car. Not too bad at all. Remove exhaust, remove rear wheels, remove bolts securing suspension arms to rear hub, remove subframe.
Anyhow, here are some pics.
Just rolling the old subframe out.
Yup, it broke all right. Different places both times.
Something's missing...
It's going to look like this for a few days. Hope the neighbors don't mind.
The subframe will be sand blasted, rewelded with boxed in mounts for the swaybar brackets, coated with POR15, and measurements taken for some custom rear end pieces.
I'll post more pics as the work progresses.
