I was just saying to put the bar on race because I dont think he would regret it.

 

OK, I fixed the rear bar by pulling that allen bolt they provided out and putting the old bolt back in. Much easier with a ratchet then with an allen wrench.

So I was starting the front sway. I could not get my car up on the rhino ramps cause it would scrape the front bumper. so I used jack stands instead. But when I crawled under my car, it didtn'e seem like it would be high enough.
My question for those of you who did it yourself is, how high did you have it off the ground? Did you use a huge floor jack or just some jack stands, and how far does that piece pull down? If you did not do it yourself, how much did it cost you?.

 

my car wiill be about 4.5 feet off the groudn when i do mine....................i love having a lift in my garage......................












im doing it at my buddies dealership :D

 

I admit when I only had about an hour of daylight installing my rear Hotchkis sway that I got confused. The allen bolts go to the top and the nut goes over the factory black screw that is sort of welded to the frame area. (I thought the allen bolt and nut went together (cause they are screwed together) but they do not and the directions didn't say otherwise. Lots of lube!

Anyway, the next day I figured it out with 'patience and no rush' a good amount of daylight. Make sure you have the sloted hole brackets in the rear and the single hole brackets up front.

I have had my rear on the race setting for a couple weeks now with the factory sway on still. Funny, I am only half-way done and I am already loving it. There is a new houseing development going in near me and all they have is the roads paved with no houses or construction yet. I use it as my personal autocross course and I tell you it is a blast!!! I have only had greater performance than stock. The rear is tight as hell and the front I can feel a tiny amount of lift driving with tires squealing and car sliding/ drifting a couple feet. Yes you can drive just fine (actually better) with just the rear on till you get the front done.

Planning on installing the front next week. I may have to hire someone. The dealership didnt return my call when I asked for a quote.

Please give advise on the front install.

 

Installing the front sucks!!! I just spent 4-5 hours changing the brackets because i had the slotted one up front. I used the floor jack and jack stand to get my car up. Had it up about foot and a half. I had plenty of room just very time consuming. Also make sure you install the passenger side front sway inboard the power steering line like it says in the manual. DONT skip that step. Its a pain but i didnt have it like that and that led to lots of clunks and bangs.

 

Thanks for the input... Did you do this by yourself. Sounds like you were able to get it done in your garage?
What setting do you have your sway bars too?
How are you likeing them?

If you have access to a color printer, downloading this Hotchkis Installation PDF file and printing it out in color will be "a lot" more visually easier to read than the one that comes with it.
http://www.trdsparks.com/install/22425inst.pdf

 

They have those instructions on the hotchkistuning website as well. That's what I used, and that's why I haven't put the front on yet!
So, just a foot and a half off the ground, eh? I could do that with my floor jack and jack stands. I think I will try it again in 2 weeks when I get back from my business trip and my buddy is back from Japan. I'll let you know how it goes.
But I'm also chekcing local prices to see what they would charge to put it in.

 

I just got done installing mine a little bit ago. I just set em on race and took it for a spin...slight understeer, which I can deal with...I was doing S's and Donuts in a wet parking lot at about 25-30 miles an hour and not a bit of body roll at all.

 

Did you do them yourself? How long did the front take? and what did you use to jack your car up?
I'm doing my front tomorrow night. I hope I finish so I can drive it to work on Monday instead of having to take my buddy's corolla!

 

Me and my roomate threw them in. Neither of us had ever installed sways before. The front was very much a pain, but not for the reason everyone else stated. Getting the bolts off proved to be the most difficult part...twice we realized we didnt have the right wrench, or deep socket and had to drive to wal-mart (20 minutes away) to get it. The hotchkis directions are ____ed up. Atleast mine were. A few parts on the process, they tell you to use the wrong size socket or wrench and they fail to tell you whether or not it might be a deep one thats needed. Of course they dont know what size bolt the manufacturer used on everyone, but a warning wouldve been cool atleast.
Anyways, once we got the bolts off, everything else was a breeze until it was time to torque them back down. We used a hydrolic jack and jack stands to put the car up about a foot and a half, so were both under their, on our backs trying to get these bolts torqued exactly right...gimme a effin break, ya know? One or 2 of them mightve been off by a pound or 2
Do as the instructions say and DONT skip anything. A good idea might be to wd-40 all the bolts youre going to be working with and also...youre going to need 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 17mm, 19mm sockets and/or wrenchs. Make sure you have the deep AND regular sockets on ALL of them. Also, a swivel head ratchet is a must as well...small and large.
On the rear sway....easy stuff until you go to tighten the bolts down....I recommend doing the hex bolts first on both sides, then the bottom ones, then sway end links.
All in all, for 2 unexperienced sway bar installers who had to make 2 trips to wal mart during the install...it took us about 8 hours to do both...and 6 of those was on the front

 

Best advice I can give anyone on this install:

USE A LIFT & AIR TOOLS! The install is hard enough doing it with a lift & air tools, why make it any harder by having to lay on your back & have only 2 feet of space to work in.

 

OH! DUHHHHH!!! Why didnt I think of using my lift and "air tools" in my garage

Not everyone has a lift and impact wrenches (air tools) at their disposal

 

I would take the stock bolt out and use the allen bolt that came with the set. The hotchkis bolt felt a little heavier and i would bet is stronger. It's probably designed to hold in the thicker sway bar and bracket to the frame. Otherwise, the wouldn't tell you to discard the old bolts. I also lost one of my washers so I got some grade A washers in.

 

I really want to use the allen bolt, but it's stripped the f*ck out! It went in sideways and was only holding on by a couple threads. I'm sure the stock bolt tightened all the way down would be better then the allen bolt olny part way in!
What bugs me is that the other side is being held on by the allen bolt. But it's just a bolt. I think it will be fine. I've been checking it every so often (especially after hard cornering) and it hasn't budged. But thanks for the concern.

 

For piece of mind, just order another one from hotchkis. They cost $.50, you could also order another set of bushings for a few years down the line. Who knows what might happen down the line and you can't get a hold of some bushings. Just a thought.

 

CELL:
Thanks for all the info in that last post. It made the job much easier. My buddy and I did the front this weekend. I tried getting an impact wrench, but ended up just using a long ended wrench with an attachment to get those 4 steering cradle bolts off. HOLY CRAP were those tight!. Other then that, it wasn't all that hard. Except alot of the sizes in the instructions were wrong.
Oh, and I switched the brackets and used the bolts that Hotchkis provided. The thread in that hole is still jacked up, but I was able to crank the allen bolt on this time since I rethreaded it with the original bolt a little.
But let me tell you, I didn't think that adding the front bar at 40% or whatever the max is would make that much of a difference, but I can TOTALLY feel the difference in high speed corneres! The front and rear Hotchkis bars has got to be the best mod out right now for the tC! I love them! Thanks for all the help, everyone!

 

glad your enjoying your bars, prob the best suspension mod I can think of.

 

OMG, yes they are on tight. I broke a Craftsman 14mm socket in-two.

 

Got to love craftsman's lifetime warrenty

 

Where can I find what setting is what with these bars?