I am planning to change the front and rear sway bars on my 2001 330Ci. My question is, do I need to have the car on jack stand or can I use a ramp and change the front and then the rear? Basically, is it possible to change the sway bars with tires supported by the ramp instead of hanging and have the car supported by the jack stand. Thanks all.
When I installed sway bars on my SE-R, I remember that it was required that the weight of the car be on the wheels in order to properly allign an L bracket that was used to mount the end links. The top of the L bracket needed to be parallel to the ground. I don't know if you'll run into the same problem, but just keep this in consideration.
In theory, yes. In practice, you could be killed.
I did it on my Samurai once, and nothing bad happened, the car was level and everything, and it went off and on pretty easily...but I was standing in front of the vehicle while doing it, not lying under it.
What about being killed? I don't understand.
The way I have always done it is to put the end of the car you are currently changing on ramps, and the end of the car you are not currently changing on jackstands. This keeps the car level with the suspension compressed to avoid introducing any preload into the swaybar you are installing
The sway bar can be done with the car hanging from jackstands/ a lift, or on ramps, but I always tightened the new links with the wheels on the ground as I get a warm fuzzy feeling that they will be pre-loaded properly, but I have seen them installed with the wheels dangling as well so I don't know that it makes any difference on the average street car. On the racecar we always installed the link after setting everything else up, with the driver in the driver seat but we used rod ends instead of bushings. As far as being killed with the swaybar I think only if someone hit you in the head with it. Even on badly twisted cars I've never seen one with enough preload to really hurt someone.
The one thing you can't do is try to change a sway bar with one side of the car jacked up. That would certainly create an exciting situation if you managed to get an end link free.
You'll need to log in to post.
