July 29, 2007
Don't make the same mistake that I did. I tried to put the front stabilizer bar in after the engine was already installed. I tried to get it in without lifting the engine but figured out pretty quickly that it wasn't going to happen. I had to disconnect the motor mounts, transmission mount, exhaust system, and a few other things. Then I had to use my engine hoist to pull the engine and transmission up far enough to get the bar in. With the engine out of the way I was able to slide the bar right in.
Now, about the stabilizer bar. Four years ago, when I was in the planning stages, I had decided to use new front and rear stabilizer bars from Quickor Suspension. They were pretty expensive so I decided that I was going to wait till I was ready to install the steering components to purchase the stabilizer bars. A few years ago Quickor went out of business. At that time, I decided to wait until I was installing the steering parts to figure out where I would purchase new stabilizer bars. I really wanted the Quickor parts because I had heard that they had the best fit. Well, about two weeks before I needed the bars, I found a new pair on eBay. They were advertised as being the same as what was available from Quickor before they went out of business. I emailed the seller and found that he was Quickor, but was now just making bars for a select few high performance cars including 60 to 64 Galaxies. I ended getting the exact stabilizer bars that I originally wanted for $100 less than what they were listed as four years ago.
Over the last few days I was able to get the inner and outer tie rod ends, power steering control valve, power steering cylinder, idler arm, and center link installed. I purchased a power steering return hose from Concours Parts (I think), and the pressure hose from Carquest (several years ago). I also purchased the two short hoses that go from the power cylinder to the control valve from NAPA, but when I tried to install them, there was no way they would fit. Since no other catalogs or auto parts stores carried these hoses, I went to Carquest to see if they could custom make some. They don't make hoses so they looked through their catalog for me. We found one that looked close and after cutting it a little shorter and reflaring the end, it fits great. I'll try to remember to update this page with the part number later.
