[blackshine007]

I was doing some work on a Contour oneday and I decided to look up under the car to see exactly how big their sway bars are, being that ours are very mimiscule in comparison to practically anyone's car. So when I got up under, I noticed that their sway bar looks almost like a carbon copy of ours, but thicker. So my project for this weekend since I had a $40 credit was to Find a contour and rape it of it's sway bar. So I find a donor car ('99 CSVT) which from the factory comes with an 18 mm sway bar. Ours is alot smaller BTW, for those who knew. There just so happen to be a Probe SE 2 cars down from the CSVT so I crawl under it to inspect it. Turns out it's probably an inch longer on each side than ours, but that's plenty of space. I take the sway bar home with me (bushings and all) and rolled my car up on my ramp. I unbolted the sway links from the bottom, and then the bolts that support my factory sway link. 10 minutes later, it's sitting on the ground. I match up the factory bushings vs. the CSVT bushings, they are demensionally the same size except for one of them supports alot bigger sway bar. I mount up the bushings. I use the Mazda Factory sway bar support brackets. I used a little bit of lube to help it install a little easier. A little bit of tightning and a little bit of moving the sway bars around and botta bing! They are on. Next week, I'm gonna go by there again for the altima end links to make everything official.

So all in all, you're gonna need the following items:

- a CSVT 18mm sway bar
- the CSVT bushings that came with the bar
- your factory support brackets off your old sway bar
- a 14mm socket and wrench
- a 4mm allen socket key
- some lube
- a ramp to roll up on (you want the suppension to be in a relaxed state and not jacked up on one side or it will be hell to install)


I didn't take pics, but I will in the future. This is probably one of the cheapest mods you can do to your car and be one of the most effective. No more body sway in hard corners from the weak and anemic factory sway bars.

CSVT sway bar on my 626


Stock 626 sway bar


RX7 sway bar links, nuts, washers and bolts (I'm missing 2 lock washers)

[MarkDish]

blackshine007, on Oct 29 2007, 10:20 PM, said:

I was doing some work on a Contour oneday and I decided to look up under the car to see exactly how big their sway bars are, being that ours are very mimiscule in comparison to practically anyone's car. So when I got up under, I noticed that their sway bar looks almost like a carbon copy of ours, but thicker. So my project for this weekend since I had a $40 credit was to Find a contour and rape it of it's sway bar. So I find a donor car ('99 CSVT) which from the factory comes with an 18 mm sway bar. Ours is alot smaller BTW, for those who knew. There just so happen to be a Probe SE 2 cars down from the CSVT so I crawl under it to inspect it. Turns out it's probably an inch longer on each side than ours, but that's plenty of space. I take the sway bar home with me (bushings and all) and rolled my car up on my ramp. I unbolted the sway links from the bottom, and then the bolts that support my factory sway link. 10 minutes later, it's sitting on the ground. I match up the factory bushings vs. the CSVT bushings, they are demensionally the same size except for one of them supports alot bigger sway bar. I mount up the bushings. I use the Mazda Factory sway bar support brackets. I used a little bit of lube to help it install a little easier. A little bit of tightning and a little bit of moving the sway bars around and botta bing! They are on. Next week, I'm gonna go by there again for the altima end links to make everything official.

So all in all, you're gonna need the following items:

- a CSVT 18mm sway bar
- the CSVT bushings that came with the bar
- your factory support brackets off your old sway bar
- a 14mm socket and wrench
- a 4mm allen socket key
- some lube
- a ramp to roll up on (you want the suppension to be in a relaxed state and not jacked up on one side or it will be hell to install)


I didn't take pics, but I will in the future. This is probably one of the cheapest mods you can do to your car and be one of the most effective. No more body sway in hard corners from the weak and anemic factory sway bars. When I get the altima end links, I'll post back with some pics.

EDIT: here's some pics
CSVT sway bar on my 626

Stock 626 sway bar

im still a little confused D=

wanna come help me ? haha

[blackshine007]

I also wanna add that you can use the second gen RX7 rear end links and just bolt them right in. I'll have pics after I get off work

[Bigjames02]

Great find man, awesome!

[blackshine007]

Updates: After getting everything installed, I noticed that it has a bit of an angle which probably won't be very good for the links over time. here's the pic


I'm fairly certain the Altima links will do the same.

So while strolling through the junkyard, I ran across the junkyard and noticed the links of a 2nd gen RX7 fits right in place of ours without the drama of having to use an allen socket, plus it will compensate for the offset because you can mount the through bolt on either side. here's the pic, notice how how much straighter it is?


Here's a pic of both links side by side

[snailman153624]

You suck! The U-Pull-Its here are not nearly as good as the pull-a-parts in Atlanta. I'd never find a CSVT here...

I did find two Millenias, however, and grabbed a few parts.

Anyway, cool find!

[blackshine007]

snailman153624, on Nov 11 2007, 08:04 PM, said:

You suck! The U-Pull-Its here are not nearly as good as the pull-a-parts in Atlanta. I'd never find a CSVT here...

I did find two Millenias, however, and grabbed a few parts.

Anyway, cool find!

I should have mentioned in the update that the CSVT rear bar isn't the only one. I posted this on probetalk too

tour96se said:

there were several bars used. i'll give you guys a quick run down. basically any and all rear sway bars on the 95-00 contour/mystique,and later the cougar will be a upgrade over ours. they ranged from 16-19mm.
1995-1998/ GL&LX/ 17MM
1995-1998/ SE/ 19MM
1998.5+/ LX/ I4/ 16MM
1998.5+/ LX/ V6/ 17MM
1998.5+/ SE/ All/ 18MM
All/ SVT/ V6/ 18MM

So basicly, the '98 SE's are an upgrade to what I have too

[Great Dane]

Now you're gonna have me looking for one of these swaybars. Definitely a 19mm one.

[Mafia]

Very nice find, blackshine!

I have a question though, not about the svt bar, but in general. Do you know the size of the bolts and nuts that are used to screw on the sway bar bushing brackets? I didn't have a swaybar on my car originally, and now I'm installing an adcco bar, but can't find nuts and bolts that match.

Thanks for reading,

Adam

[MarkDish]

Mafia, on Nov 15 2007, 09:46 PM, said:

Very nice find, blackshine!

I have a question though, not about the svt bar, but in general. Do you know the size of the bolts and nuts that are used to screw on the sway bar bushing brackets? I didn't have a swaybar on my car originally, and now I'm installing an adcco bar, but can't find nuts and bolts that match.

Thanks for reading,

Adam

i saw on andysautosport.com has an addco rear sway bar kit that comes with all the goodies to install it.

so i should find a contour svt and get the front end sway bar off of it? how big is a stock 02' front sway bar and how big is the Csvt's ?

i want one! haha

[MarkDish]

*bump*

[blackshine007]

MarkDish, on Nov 26 2007, 06:16 PM, said:

Mafia, on Nov 15 2007, 09:46 PM, said:

Very nice find, blackshine!

I have a question though, not about the svt bar, but in general. Do you know the size of the bolts and nuts that are used to screw on the sway bar bushing brackets? I didn't have a swaybar on my car originally, and now I'm installing an adcco bar, but can't find nuts and bolts that match.

Thanks for reading,

Adam

i saw on andysautosport.com has an addco rear sway bar kit that comes with all the goodies to install it.

so i should find a contour svt and get the front end sway bar off of it? how big is a stock 02' front sway bar and how big is the Csvt's ?

i want one! haha

Damn, man. My fault. TO answer your question, the '93-'97 sway bars are bigger on the front than the Contours. Your best bet is to hold onto your sway bar because the front sway bar isn't worth it. But the rear is a completely different story....

[Great Dane]

Just called the local Ford dealer. The rear swaybar for a '97 Countour SE (19mm) is $60.08 new. Just FYI for those of us ready to do this swap. I'm about to get the price for the end links and bushings next, because my car didn't come with a rear swaybar at all.

[Great Dane]

I'm going to the nearest Pull-a-Part next Friday to find this swaybar. Wish me Luck!!!

[NDM]

wow for 60 new its almost worth getting new! Adco is 22mm vs that as 19mm, not much of a difference for a 100 dollar price gap no?

How big were the bars on 98+? 16mm? and then 93-97 were 14mm? (for 626's that is)