Ford Mustang Hellwig Sway Bar Installation

Chris Duke: I am Chris Duke and today on Motorz, we are going to show you how to install Front and Rear sway bars on our 2008 Ford Mustang GT. Last October, we had David Wheeler from Hellwig Products on our show, helping us with the installation on the set of Sway Bars on my Ford-150. We are so impressed with the improvements and traction and cornering that we've invited David back again. So today on Motorz, we are going to show you how to install a set of Hellwig Performance Sway Bars on our 2008 Ford Mustang GT. Welcome back to the show again David, we are stoked to have you back again. David Wheeler: It's good to be back again on the show, Chris. Chris duke: Now, why do we want to upgrade the factory sway bars on our Mustangs. Aren't they already built for performance straight from the assembly line? David Wheeler: The Mustang is a great handling vehicle but it's a mass produced vehicle, so it has some compromises. A performance set of sway bars is going to allow you to get the most out of your vehicle. Chris Duke: Okay, now your website says these things are two wheelers how is that going to be benefit our Mustang. David Wheeler: Well the tube of the sway bar is hollow in the center, so even though we are upsize on the sway bar for more performance, we are not increasing its weight. Chris duke: Okay, now are these sway bars applicable with modified suspension such as a lowering kit or other suspension upgrades. David Wheeler: Yes they are, they incorporate three adjustable holes also that allow you to tune sway bar to match your suspension upgrade. Chris Duke: Okay great. Well, it looks these sway bars are really going to benefit our Mustang, let's get started with the installation. So David, what are we looking at here? David Wheeler: What we are looking at, is a 35mm adjustable front sway bar, a 25mm adjustable rear sway bar, mounting brackets for the rear sway bar and handling, bushings, mounting brackets and bushings for the front sway bar and collar clamps to keep the front sway bar from slide side to side. Chris Duke: For this installation you are going to need a low profile floor jacks, some jack stands and some assorted wrenches 11/16, 9/16 or 5/8 and a 15mm, you are also going to need a ratchet with a 15mm deep and standard size socket, and a 9/16 socket with an extension, some work gloves and some rags. Well they've already got the front of the car jacked up and we are going to put this larger 35mm on the front, what we've got to do to get it on? David Wheeler: First, we have to take off the factory installed sway bars. Chris Duke: The first thing you want to do is grab an 18 mm wrench and an 8 mm wrench to remove this bolt of the End Link. Put the 8 mm over this post and hold it in place while you loosen the 18mm nut around it. Then take a 15 mm deep socket and remove these nuts off the bottom of the sway bar. David you want to take that one over there? David Wheeler: Sure Chris Duke: After removing these four lock nuts and disconnecting the End Links, we can safely remove the sway bar. Well, David we've got our stock sway bar off, we got to sit, next to the new Hellwig sway bar. What are the difference between the two here? David Wheeler: Well, we've got a larger diameter sway bar, we also have adjustment holes in to the sway bar. The stock sway bar only has one hole to attach it. We actually provide 3 additional holes, so that you can adjust the rolled stiffness of the sway bar to match how you want the vehicle to handle. Chris Duke: Okay, now before we put the new Hellwig sway bar on what we are going to do with these bushings here. David Wheeler: First we have to lubricate the bushings with the supplied bushing lubricant and then install them in the factory locations. A good way to keep them lined up properly is to put the factory sway bar and in line with the new sway bar. Chris Duke: Okay. David Wheeler: In order to get the bushing location and then you could just install the sway bar bushings in that location. Chris Duke: I see it's pretty easy, let's get that done and then we'll get these on Mustang. David Wheeler: This is Teflon grease keeps the bar quiet. One advantage of the hammer tone finish is these pockets hold the bushing loops so the bar stays quieter for a longer period of time. Chris Duke: What do we do with these Collar Clamps here? David Wheeler: What the Collar Clamps does, is keeps the bar from sliding side to side, so these are installed right to the next of the bushing. Chris Duke: That's a replacement for the stock one right there. David Wheeler: Correct, correct that just keeps the bar from sliding side to side. To install these, we'll wait until we have everything tightened and we can put these on once the bar is installed. Chris Duke: So Dav we want the center hole here on this End Link. What's the difference between the other holes? David Wheeler: The center hole is the nominal position, and that's where we recommend, you start out with. I mean if you want to make the bar firmer, you would move it forward one hole, if you want to make the bar softer you would move it rearward one hole. Changing the hole position is about a 10% of difference in weight. Chris Duke: Using an Allen Wrench, install the supplied Collar Clamps around the sway bar, on the inside of the bushing. After lifting up the rear of the vehicle, we began by using a 15 mm deep socket to remove this end link nut, then on the lower mount remove these two 15 mm nuts as well. Today, we've just got the rear sway bar off our Mustang it's pretty simple, just four nuts and they pop right off. Now what's the difference is here, we are looking at between the new one versus the old stock one. David Wheeler: Well the new bar is 25mm versus about 22mm from the stock bar, so it's going to be a little stiffer, provide more performance also it's constructed differently, and that it's made of tubular steel, so that it's lighter weight. Also it has three adjustment holes, so you can tune the rolled stiffness to match your driving style, Stock part does not have that adjustability. It's kind of one size fits all type of a theory. So this performance rear sway bar has a lot of features over to stock sway bar. Chris Duke: Okay, now what about all this extra hardware that we've got here. What are we going to do with that? David Wheeler: We've got new axle mounts, so these are bolts of the axle and new end links that bolt up to the frame and bushings that go in each one. Chris Duke: Using 9/16 socket and a 9/16 wrenched tighten these down. Tighten all your nuts and bolts and then take it out for a test drive, and adjust the sway bar to match your driving preference. The stock battery that you get with your vehicle is fine for a stock vehicle. However if you are planning to upgrade the audio system that something requires more power then you are going to need more juice. The best solution for that is Optima Batteries Yellow Top. The Yellow Top is a high performance battery that includes premium cranking power and cycling capabilities. Its deep cycle charge provides enough power for high demand audio systems, commercial vehicle applications, heavy equipment and more. The battery has twice the life span of a traditional battery, it's completely spill proof and available nearly every automotive application. For more information check out www.optimabatteries.com MOTORZ Mod Money, by watching this episode of Motorz TV and doing the installation yourself you just saved that ton of money. The estimated labor cost was an average taken from two nationwide install shops. Now, that's a lot of mod money. Well, we just got back from our test drive, after putting the Front and Rear Hellwig Sway Bars on it, it's pretty awesome actually. Some of the things we notice is: more predictable steering, increased responsiveness in the front, and especially in the rear and better traction especially at launch. Well, David thanks again for coming down and being in our show. David Wheeler: It's good to be back on Motorz again and as always I had a good time. Chris Duke : That does it for this episode of Motorz, for more information on the products you saw installed today go to hellwigproducts.com and for course for more episodes of Motorz head on over to motorz.tv. We'll catch you next time.