front & rear sway bar idea '92 legy Turbo wgn?

[LegyC-LegyDO]

Looking for your input, or experiences

On a 1992 wagon w/ ej22t thinking of upgrading to a 20mm front sway and 18mm rear sway bar. What do you think. I'm looking mostly for dirt/gravel handling.

Thanks

[Legacy777]

Go with at least a 20 in the rear. The stock rear bar is 18mm. Otherwise, definitely recommend doing both.

[LegyC-LegyDO]

So you think 20mm for both ?

[Legacy777]

I've actually got a Whiteline 22mm, BSF20 bar in the front, and an adjustable Whiteline 20mm (it's either the BSR17XZ or BSR19XZ)

20 for both should be good

[Bender-san]

I'm sure this has been asked and answered, but I'm suffering from a case of search FAIL. Is there a factory mounting location for a rear sway bar on the non-turbo legacy wagon (say....1993)? I haven't seen a rear bar on one yet, so I'm curious if there are pictures floating around that my search FAIL hasn't been able to find.

[TurnNburn]

This has just about every question about sway bars answered. Helped me out a lot. Although im pretty bummed that there arent any easy swaps for us from WRX's or STI's...
http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=34702

And here is a link to a thread, with pictures, about adding a rear sway bar to a 93 that didnt come with one.
http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=26464

[Apex3]

I love my Rallitek bar, a lot cheaper than Whiteline too. Though since it's not for a Legacy you have to do a little hammering, but not much.

This has just about every question about sway bars answered. Helped me out a lot. Although im pretty bummed that there arent any easy swaps for us from WRX's or STI's...
http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=34702

And here is a link to a thread, with pictures, about adding a rear sway bar to a 93 that didnt come with one.
http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=26464

What do you mean no easy swap? A WRX wagon 20mm front bar fits perfect, and the rear bars off pretty much anything before 08 fit with minimal modification. Though I don't think anything came stock with a bigger rear bar if that's what you're talking about. Also a Tribeca 25mm front bar fits, but that's excessive IMO for most applications

I'm sure this has been asked and answered, but I'm suffering from a case of search FAIL. Is there a factory mounting location for a rear sway bar on the non-turbo legacy wagon (say....1993)? I haven't seen a rear bar on one yet, so I'm curious if there are pictures floating around that my search FAIL hasn't been able to find.

Maybe not on yours, but it's easy to add, I have a 91 so I had to do the same swap to fit a newer style bar, see the links turnnburn posted above.

[TurnNburn]

The front bar from a Rex fits? As long as its pre 08? What about having to change the mounts or the bushings? Thats good to know!!! The WRX came with a 20mm RSB. I also have a 91SS and would really like to put on WRX front and rear sway bars. When you say light modification, do you mean hammer up the spare tire well a little? Because if thats it i am more then will to bust out the 3# hammer right now and bang away. lol.

Sorry for all of the questions, but this is all news to me and i had already given up finding something cheap.

[Apex3]

Only the front wagon bar fits AFAIK, not the sedan. I installed mine with the stock bushings and mounts just fine, but it would probably be best to change the bushings if you can.

As for the rear bar, I bought one for a "96-99 Legacy" and it was labelled as 06-07 STi, called to tell them it was missing bushings and told them they sent the wrong bar, but they said it's the same bar for both. BTW they sent the bushings no questions asked, free shipping, Rallitek is great to deal with.

So based off that, a WRX rear bar should fit fine, I just can't say for 100%. And yes by light modification I meant hammering that bump.

[TurnNburn]

Sweet. Thanks for clearing that up. Now im on the hunt again.

[Bender-san]

So I've actually SEEN a rear bar on a wagon now. It's pretty neat, but I'm concerned about a possible issue with the mounting brackets. Is anyone else worried about the stress placed on the 8mm bolts that hold the bracket to the frame rails when a 20mm or larger rear bar is installed?

[Apex3]

Those brackets just hold it in place, all the real load is on the end links and control arms.

Oh, and I didn't notice this was for a wagon, everything I said was for a sedan, not sure if it's different or not but just something you should make sure of before buying anything.

[Bender-san]

In the words of the great Bill Lumberg, "Yeah....I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you on that one." Too much experience with sway bar body mounts tearing out tells me that there IS significant load placed on the body mounts and associated brackets.

[Apex3]

Well, you can add that to the list of poorly designed parts on these cars then, because there shouldn't be any load on it.

FWIW I've been running a Rallitek 20-24mm bar set at 24 for a year now without issue.

[Legacy777]

Same here....I've been running a 20-24 mm rear bar since about 2002 without issue. I did upgrade to the whiteline mounting bracket, but they still bolt to the same stock location. You'll be fine.

http://main.experiencetherave.com/subar ... aybar1.JPG
http://main.experiencetherave.com/subar ... aybar2.JPG
http://main.experiencetherave.com/subar ... aybar3.JPG
http://main.experiencetherave.com/subar ... aybar4.JPG
http://main.experiencetherave.com/subar ... aybar5.JPG

[Bender-san]

Good to know. Now all I have to do is fix the right front corner after the wife ran into someone.

[TurnNburn]

So after the responses i got from this thread i picked up a 06 STI rear sway bar. I expected fitment issues as far as spare tire bumps and that it would need to be pushed up to fit. Did that no problem. But while comparing these bars it seems pretty obvious to me that they are not going to fit because of the way the endlinks connect to the bar and how the STI bar is probably 2 inches to wide. I tried anyway. Even with bending the endlinks a little bit to try to make up the difference in width and a lot of swearing and prying, i was not able to make this work.

So to those who have done this, is it even possible to get this to fit using the stock SS pieces?

Could i put the bar on the outside of the end link, instead of between the 2 forks like its supposed to be? Kind of like yours looks like in that 5th picture, josh. If i used enough washers to pick up the slack would this be a solid way of mounting it? Initially thought it was pretty sketchy, but the more i thought about it i figured it might work and as long as the bolt went through the center and didnt have any play in it it would be solid.

I am considering heating up the bar a little bit with a torch in the corners and bending them in a bit to make it fit, but only as a last result.

[Legacy777]

You need to replace the drop links. The 90-91 MY's came setup that the bars go in between the drop link ends. The 92+ just bolt to the side.

Dan, 93forestpearl I believe may have a set of drop links like mine that you could use. Shoot him a PM and see if he still has them. They come with the whiteline antisway bars, but I don't believe you can buy them separately.

[TurnNburn]

I sent him a PM. But what do you think of my idea of just bolting it to the side of the ones i have? Seems like it would work if they fit. They would essentially serve the same purpose, although those whiteline ones look much beefier. And i wont know that for another few minutes until i get my butt down there and check. Will post back with my results.

[Legacy777]

From my memory the links aren't very beefy, and only bolting to one side might not be strong enough.