924Board.org

[Grambo246]

Hi all. I have a 1987 924S. I am looking to replace the front sway bar, and add a rear sway bar (as the car did not come with it stock) I ordered a 944 turbo 24mm front sway bar, and an 18mm rear sway bar.

Is this compatible with my car? I am having a hard time finding information on this.

I am under the assumption that all 944/968 front sway bars will fit, and same with the rear. Is this correct?
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1987 924S Black

[gohim]

The front bar should be okay.

Since your car did not come with a rear bar, you did to crawl under the car at the rear and inspect the torsion bar carrier to make sure that the mounting breakets for the cent mounts are welded to the carrier. The end links are anchored by a special extended bolt that takes the place on each side of one of the bolts that secures the trailing arm to the spring plate. Most probably you won't have these. Check and see if the rear bar that you get is going to come with the special bolts, the end links, and the center bar mounts. Otherwise you are going to have to buy those parts, and the price of the parts adds up.

[Smoothie]

What he said + look here for Chrenan's solution to the rear bar mounting problem - http://www.924board.org/viewtopic.php?t=21794
You might make use of part or all of that depending on whether your torsion bar housing has the welded-on stabilizer bar mounts.

There were at least 3 versions of front bar design and mounting. The first version was used up to late '82, the second from late '82 through the first series of 944 ('85), then the third version was used from series 2 944 through 968 ('85-'95), so yes as gohim already mentioned, you're good since both the 951 and 924S were made between '85-'95.


Here's a rear Weltmeister bar and its' mounting -

(The OE camber eccentric (adjustment) bolt gets swapped with a double-ended bolt that still serves as camber adjuster on one end and stabilizer bar end-link attachment at the other.)
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"..it's made in Germany. You know the Germans always make good stuff."


'82 924T, US version, dark green metallic, 5 speed Audi 016G gearbox

[Grambo246]

Thanks. Yes I have the mounts welded to the rear torsion bar, and the brackets came with the bar, I just need to find drop links and the bolts, which hopefully will be easy.

I asked about the front bar because in the Tweeks catalog I have it specifies a different part for weltmiester front sway bars for an 87 924S, and an 87 944. I researched further and read something about this being because of a difference between steel and aluminum A-arms used on the two models. I guess I will see when I get the part whether it will fit.

As a side, my goal is to get the car to the factory sport setup, which I understood to be a 23mm front and 18mm rear. I am aiming for this just because it was a factory setup, and am concerned about throwing off the balance of the car by putting on different sizes and combinations of sway bars. Is this a correct line of thought, or are there other options out there for sway bar size/front rear combination that won't unbalance the car?
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1987 924S Black

[gohim]

Are you saying that you didn't get the droplinks and doubledended bolts for the rear sway bar when you purchased the sway bar? Then I hope you didn't pay much for the rear bar.

The best hardware is the factory hardware, and if you didn't get the hardware with the sway bar, and you are forced to buy the hardware from the Dealer, it's going to be expensive.

I don't remember exactly how much the hardware is worth at the Dealer, but I think it is over $100.

The best rear sway bar is the 18mm 968 rear bar which has multiple settings. It does cost much more than any of the other rear sway bars from the 924, 944, or 951, fits in any of the cars, and it's the only one with multiple settings.

The front bar that will work best would be a 82-85 944 front bar. I think that the 86 951 may also have used steel front lower arms, so the sway bar from a 86 951 might fit fine as well. The later 951 front bar will fit, as will the front bar from the 85.5 944, but the geometry is slightly different as you pointed out the 85.5 and later 944 and the 951 use alloy front lower arms.

[Chrenan]