Re: Tech: Proper Lubing of Neuspeed Swaybar Bushings

[mitchman@owt.com (Mitch)]

George,

Normally it's not the bushings that connect the swaybar to the suspension
arms (behind the wheels) that squeek but rather the bushings that mount the
swaybars to the frame.  Ususally the bar is mounted in two places under the
car.  I've never looked at how a sway bar mounts on my GLX but the bar has
to mount to the frame somewhere and that's where all the squeeking and
twisting occurs.

I've installed swaybars in two different cars and the first manufacture (I
think it was Suspension Techniques) didn't mention lubercating the two
swaybar frame mount bushings.  But in my Ground Control swaybar
instructions they made a big deal about it.  They even supplied the special
grease (it felt like heavy duty, high temp brake grease to me)!  They
didn't mention anything about lubercating the points where the swaybar
mounts to the suspention arms.  I don't think this is where your problem
is.

Find the points where your bars mount to the frame.  Unbolt them and spread
some grease inside the bushings with your finger.  Or better yet take it
back to the place that installed the bars to begin with and make them do
it.  They shouldn't be squeeking it they were greased properly.

My two cents....

Mitch

'97 White GLX (long time autocrosser and car nut!)


>Hi All,
>        Over the weekend I tried lubing the bushings on my Neuspeed swaybars
>(installed last summer) because they were creaking like an old barn door.
>Someone from the list last week told me not to go with Silicon, but I saw
>that there was also Teflon and Graphite lubes as well as others not as well
>marked. The guy at the hardware store told me the graphite would hold up
>better, so I bought it and applied it.
>        I turned the wheels the whole way to the right, sprayed both sides from
>respective openings, and turned the wheels the whole way the other way and
>sprayed both respective sides again. I then turned the the wheels back and
>forth twice more to try and work it in by stretching the bushingts.
>        It still squeaked so I tried the process again, and again it still
>squeaks. Could someone tell me the proper method of doing this. Should I
>take off the front rims, and apply it then, or should the car be on a lift,
>so as to reposition bushings to the full extended suspension position?
>        TIA-G

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