I installed my Lower Tie Bar, and discovered it's secret!

FourthGenHatch · 07-03-2002, 07:15 PM

Here's how to do it with minimal headaches!...

Jack the car up and put it on jackstands, one one each side of the back supports. Place the jack under the LCA (Lower Control Arm) right where the strut connects to it. Then jack it up until it makes contact and then a little bit more until the wheel lifts up a bit more. Now unbolt the lower control arm bolt and pull it out. Now connect just the Neuspeed Ball Joint, washer, and the bolt and bolt it where you took the old one out. Now it should go right in very smooth, or still be pretty easy to wiggle around and get in there, look on the other side, you can see the bolt inside. Now the idea is the strut is pressing down on the LCA and in turn you have to work very hard to try to get this bolt into it's place, but by jacking it up you eliminate this problem and it goes in smooth. It took me about 30-40 minutes getting the first bolt in until I discovered this method, and the 2nd bolt took less than 30 seconds to go in, so you get the point. But now with the ball joint in just screw it in enough so that its in there but not tight. Now attached the bar to it and screw it in almost all the way, I left but 1 thread from being all the way on, now attached the other ball joint and everything associated with it to the other end and leave 1 thread and now try to get the bolt in there. Should be pretty damn easy as long as you have equal threads on each side. Now bolt it in but not all the way, then go back and forth tightening each side's bolt until they are even and both fully tight. Now you are done.

ci5ic · 07-03-2002, 07:50 PM

cool! Thanks for the tip!... I think I'm gonna do mine this weekend... Maybe I'll even get around to the sway bar too...

crxlvr · 07-03-2002, 08:21 PM

im gonna get one soon, did you notice a big difference?

FourthGenHatch · 07-03-2002, 10:25 PM

The back is a little more tail happy which I happen to like, I can imagine you can do some nice drifting with the LRTB. It was worth the $79 at least.

crxlvr · 07-04-2002, 11:01 AM

damn 79 bux, i saw a neuspeed on ebay go for 36 yesterday, to bad i didnt notice your post. i wouldve snatched it up.

FourthGenHatch · 07-04-2002, 02:22 PM

Unless it was used it was probably fake.

ci5ic · 07-04-2002, 06:35 PM

Hey, FourthGenHatch...

I went to install my LRTB today, and I was trying to thread the nuts onto the ball joints... They wouldn't thread all the way, because it looked like a bunch of the threads on the ball joint were smashed in one area, and it was like that on BOTH of them... I finally got one of the nuts screwed all the way to the end of the ball joint, but I can only get the other one half-way or so...

Did you have this problem? I'm pissed!

FourthGenHatch · 07-04-2002, 11:51 PM

Did you make sure to look in behind the other side of what you are screwing into and see if it is lining up. You still have to line it up, there is just less of a fight.

ci5ic · 07-05-2002, 01:35 PM

No, you misunderstood my problem.

Okay, the LRTB came with 2 ball joint bolts and 2 nuts that thread onto the ball joint bolts, then the ball joint bolts are threaded into the tie bar. I wasn't actually installing the bar, I was just pre-threading the nuts onto the ball joint bolts. Now the problem is that on each of the ball joint bolts, there is an area of the threads that appear to be smashed. This makes it extrememly difficult to thread the nuts all the way down the ball joint bolts, and makes it extremely difficult to thread the ball joint bolts all the way into the tie bar. My question though, is that since this anomaly (the smashed threads) appeared on both ball-joint bolts in similar locations, is it intentional? Did you notice this?

I finally was able to thread the nuts all the way, but I had to put them in a vice and twist REALLY hard to get them past the smashed threads.

FourthGenHatch · 07-05-2002, 01:56 PM

No my threads were perfect. I would try to return yours and get a new one if I was you.

But when you install it install just one ball joint, then once its sort of bolted in attach the bar and thread it to about but 1 thread left, then attach the other ball joint to the other end of the bar and do the same, then try bolting that one up, it will make things a lot easier.

But try and exchange yours first.

ci5ic · 07-05-2002, 10:40 PM

I just got done installing it... I don't know what the deal was with those threads... It was a bit of a bitch, and the jack under the control arm idea didn't work for me... I had to push out on the bottom of the rims with my feet while putting the bolt through the control arms. Took me about 2 hours to jack up the car, get the old bolts out, put on the tie bar and drop the car again.

Anyways, thanks for your help, I appreciate it.

Think tomorrow I'll do my front sway bar.

FourthGenHatch · 07-05-2002, 11:55 PM

Well a few months ago my LCAs were replaced or at least one was so I guess my bolts were newer and probably easier to take out, my bushing is new also.

BullShifter · 08-14-2002, 02:38 AM

ci5ic sounds like a hack

Those bolts will fail on you some day, get new ones that thread nicely

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