Springs, Struts, Swaybars, Bushings, Tower Braces & more
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By teal_dx
#6962 Some of the lower model civics came with no sway bars, front or rear. My 92 dx hatch was like this. Only a few sway bar kits out there specify "for models with out OEM front sway bar"

The other option would be to get a set of lower control arms from a civic that has a front sway bar.

I bought Suspension Techniques front/rear sway bar kit for models that did not come with a front OEM sway bar. This thread is only going to be about the front. I'll create another thread sometime about the rear sway bar install.

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here's all the parts in the kit that will be used for the front.

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Here is how the end links & control arm adapters will look assembled.

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First, unbolt the rear most bolt holding on the lower control arm. There is a bracket with the kit that will go here. This is where the sway bar bushing will mount to.

After you get those on both sides,
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Install the adaptor brackets on the front of the lower control arms. I ended up installing them one more time because they are backwards in the pics lol.

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Grease up the inside of the sway bar bushing and pop them on before the outer bends. Only grease the inside. They give you plenty in the kit.

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Then put the metal brackets over the sway bar bushings and bolt them up to the black brackets you put on the chassis earlier.

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here's where I realized I had the brackets on backwards. The end of the sway bar was nowhere near the hole in the bracket.
So I took them off, flipped them around, and installed them again. This still was not going to fit.

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The piece uses a spacer inside on the top that goes around the bolt. The lower control arm that this piece mounts on tapers. it is thinner in the inside and gets thicker at the outer end. The spacer was preventing the adapter piece from sliding out far enough to get close to the end of the sway bar. I tried it every way possible- I even brought out the BFH you see in the background with no luck!

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without the spacer, the bracket slid all the way to the end of the control arm, but was too lose. I needed a spacer with less diameter.

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I just happened to have 2 in a junk pile!

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Here we're looking into the wheel well from behind the left front wheel.

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adapter bracket with new spacer is installed. the top bushing of the endlink is in place. All I had to do was slide the bolt with the rest of the endlink parts & sway bar attached through the adapter bracket.

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But I couldn't get it far enough through to show enough threads to get it tight! After a while of using the jack from the bottom, and wedging the top bushing down into the bracket, I got enough of the bolt through to get the nut tightened.

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I had to take the bolt/spacer out of the bracket since it was in the way to tighten the end link bolt.

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and after all of that, it was in!! The end link bolt touches the adaptor bracket bolt on both sides.

Final install pics:

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only a few mm clearance from the exhaust

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The directions with this kit were very vague and could have been written a little better. The correct sized spacer included would have been nice too!
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By Greasedmonkey
#6964 Oh wow. I think it would have been better to just get the control arms from a car with the front sway bar. That looks really low. I wouldnt be able to rock that on mine.

Love the bright ass neon green color though.
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By ohDirka
#6965 nice write up
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By vtec_gloucester
#6971 great write up :thumb:

shame i wont be able to much use :D
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By chnzgoofball
#6977 nice but it sits kind of low.... arent u scared that it may get all scraped up??
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By ChicagoMike
#6989 With all the track time your car will be seeing, this was definately a good modification! :thumb:

Killer write up also! :headbang:
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By LaMbErT*
#7042 Once again another great write up by the guru ! Does look awfully low imo but still sweet nice one :)
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By -EJ1- COUPE
#8072 great write up and you really like green ay?
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By Sire
#11131 Nice write up! What's your experience so far?
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By teal_dx
#11133 I drove the car last night for the first time. It has shit tires on it and needs an alignment, but it already handles better than before, more like it is on rails now, more linear.

Maybe I'm not used to it, but it seems stiffer too. The rear especially. I notice that the shocks are working a lot harder now, but I need new shocks anyways. My Tokico Blues have seen better days :lol: They're 5 yrs old now!
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By chnzgoofball
#11134
teal_dx wrote:I drove the car last night for the first time. It has shit tires on it and needs an alignment, but it already handles better than before, more like it is on rails now, more linear.

Maybe I'm not used to it, but it seems stiffer too. The rear especially. I notice that the shocks are working a lot harder now, but I need new shocks anyways. My Tokico Blues have seen better days :lol: They're 5 yrs old now!


yeah it should be a lot stiffer now due to the sway bars!! :thumb:
By JDMcivic
#16934 lol..it wouldnt wrk for me..it would probly bend when i take the car off jacks. I can even put a jack under my car :eh:
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By teal_dx
#16942 Update: This bar is annoying!

Every time I start moving and releasing the clutch in first gear, the cat vibrates on the sway bar. And now when I sit at a stop light sometimes just at idle, the cat is constantly vibrating on the sway bar. It sounds like my car is about to blow up and it's embarassing. If I give the gas pedal the smallest blip, the rpm's go up by 100 and it stops.

I'm waiting to see if it still does this with my new exhaust installed. If so then I'm going to have to fix this. It's sooo annoying!

All ST had to do is make it dip down 1/4" in the middle and this would not happen.
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By 1993 Civic Si
#20972 Nice article!!!

You could run a test pipe or relocate the cat.

I'd wondered how these kits mounted. I guess it was cheaper to produce a bar with that shape, as opposed to one that bends upward above the exhaust. What's the diameter?

Do you think it would've been better (and cheaper) to go with a Honda or Acura bar and LCA's.

The EG Si bars are 21mm. I'm not sure, but I THINK the EX Sedan...and maybe the coupe...got the same size.

As for Acura, the LS's (and GS's?) got 22mm bars and the GS-R's and ITR's got 24mm bars.