Sway bar mounts, Part Deux

[altiain]

Well, originally I was going to have Thorage327 replace my broken front swaybar mounts at his shop, saving me the time and trouble. Unfortunately, he had something come up. I had the day off today, so I decided to tackle it myself.

The old mounts:
.
This one was torn completely through. The other one was cracked about 2/3rds of the way through on one side, but was still holding on... barely.

The new mounts:


The job was pretty straightforward. I had to take the fans off of the radiator to get to a couple of bolts, and both radiator supports have to be removed. The OEM mounts are tack welded on both sides, but I was able to get a pair of vise grips on the broken bits and just keep working them until they broke free. A little Dremel action, and the leftover weld was ground down.

The only real hard part to the job was reattaching the radiator supports. The new swaybar bracket mounts are much larger than the OEM ones, and both radiator supports had to be "massaged" with a BFH in order to clear the mounts.

When all was said and done, I took the car for a quick spin on my little secret testing loop, and I was pretty impressed. It's amazing what an improvemnt a working set of shocks, bumpstops and a swaybar that's actually attached to the frame will do.

It's gonna be a good season, I can feel it.

[Treibenschnell]

[sammm]

Nice job! Hopefully those will hold ya' for awhile!

[general default]

Thanks for posting the info. Now I see for the first time how the replacement brackets work. You confirmed the stories I had read about it being a tight fit. Good to hear you will be driving a tight ship without
a loose nut or bar under the hood. Now the nut behind the steering wheel still needs work. (pun, ribbing you of-course) :)

[Billy Blaze]

I was recently reading about this,... that the sway bar mounts need to be upgraded to stronger ones when putting on aftermarket sway bars...the story said they would shear the old mounts in half.
My ride is kind of rough steering is tight though, do you guys thing I may need new springs and shocks? and if so what brand do you use and why?
I have put the power upgades on the back burner after talking to you guys about it. so I need to get my suspention up to speed... also I have noticed you guys have the above the engine bars on your cars that goes from shock to shock, does that just tighten up the stability of the car? and which ones would you recomend? I also saw a bar that goes between the seat belts from one side of the car to the other does anyone have this, I was curious about this as its a simple bolt on peice that dosen't require qnything except just bolting it on to the existing parts.

[channelmaniac]

Well,

My 2003 came with a VERY beefy front shock tower bar from the factory. You may be able to fit one of those in from a wrecking yard, but I'm not 100% sure on the fit back to the older NB's. BUT - you'll want to check into what type of extra horsepower you are going to put under the hood and make sure that whatever bar you buy will fit with the extras you plan on installing. No sense in purchasing it twice.

As for the rear chassis brace, it DOES help a lot. However, You'll get the same effect from a Frenzy style bar that has the built in chassis brace or from a roll bar. If you were planning on installing a roll bar then I'd go that way...

If you want to tinker... I have a cockpit chassis brace from an NA (94-97) sitting in the garage if you want it... However, I live over in Lewisville.

RJ

[Billy Blaze]

Kewl thanks, driving is no problem if I can get my old lady outta the Miata...lol

I am planning on buying a roll bar in the mid near future, I also am thinking of an FM1 since (correct me if Im wrong) it can be upgraded to FM2 later. but I have sooo much more to do before I go there and I need to have time to get used to every upgrade I figure a week per upgrade if I can keep Katt (my so) out of the car...lol