In order to replace the sway bar bushings I need drop both the sway bar ("anti-roll-bar") and the support brace ("Rear Front-Axle Support") which holds it in place.
Now, before I start unbolting this puppy I wanted to obtain some insights from those of you who have removed said brace. It is held in place by 12 bolts and seems to be part of the structural rigidity of the car. As background information, my car is currently lifted on a 2 post lift.
Questions :
1] Is it safe to remove this brace with the car lifted on it's regular 4 lift points ?
2] What are the torque settings for these 12 bolts ? I couldn't find it anywhere in the 12K page Shop Manual.

Attached some pics, both from the manual and what is currently going on in my garage. Once i get this figured out I will post a DIY.


From shop manual

Live, from my shop

Here you can see have the brace holds the bushings and sway bar in place

Thank you in advance for your help !

 

Yves, look on page 10898, it looks like the torque specs for those bolts, but the image doesn't have the numbers
I suspect we could figure it out based on the bolt diameter

hopefully someone has a good definite answer

 

I'll operate the lift on Saturday, you can get under the car and undo the bolts

 

All you have to do, is lower that entire x-brace down.. Dont remove it comletely, just lower it down... the bolts are pretty darn long and just thread it in about 3-4 revolutions. Its a combination of 16mm and 18mm nuts... Make sure you dont loosen the steering rack 18mm bolt.... Once you lower it, pull the bottom bushings off from the inside-to-out. You can also pull down on the sway bar and it will stay and hold in place, so that you can pull off the upper portion of the bushing. You can remove all the bolts except for the 4 bolts hold the sway bar bushing in place. Make sure you clean off the surface on the X-brace where the bushing will be sitting on... Also, make sure you lube your new bushings with marine grease. Yes, the bushings will look like its too small for the bar, but trust me, it will fit once you torque in the x-brace.

 

work from under the car and outward... If you work from the brake/ rotor side, you'll be making a really easy job super hard.

 

 

You dont need to worry about those two rope strap things, the bar is not under much tension. You'll need to actually pull on the bar to pull off the top bushing. It'll stay in place once you pull it down. Once you have the bushing in place, just push the bar up... Make sure you also lube the surface of the bushing-bar surface as well...

 

DONT LOOSEN THESE BOLTS: These are the steering rack bolts and the X-brace has a hole cutout for it and does not attach the X-brace to the frame of the car.

 

Work from under the and remove and install bushings from the inside of the sway bar bushings... Depicted by arrows in the pic.

 

And I can tell, you DEFINITELY need new bushings, haha

 

And the worst that could happen if you removed the entire x-brace off is the sway bar simply just flippig down. Nothing else is held up by that brace.

 

Good instruction there Alex, but too late he dropped the whole plate

 

Dude, Doug, I have a bunch of stuff to load up, but I keep having more cool projects going, so its been a little tough, hahaha. I guess, its better to post these up just in case for anyone else in the future.

 

Alex, thank you so much for the information.
As Doug indicates, the brace came off, however, without any drama. There's just too much pot being grown and IPA being brewn here in Central Oregon, sometimes I worry about my fellow PCA members
The ropes were actually used to tie the swaybar to the chassis so it couldn't drop when the brace was removed. This is also the procedure as explained in the mechanics manual.

On a different note, I noticed that the new swaybar bushings are WAY smaller than the old ones. Since they simply won't fit I called the Porsche dealership where I bought them and they admitted mistake. Apparently there are 2 different sizes bushings. My car is a Turbo S, so it may have a more beefed up sway bar, don't know.

The parts they initially sent me were ;
upper bushings (Porsche 97034379205)
lower bushings (Porsche 97034379305)

From what I was explained the parts for my car should end in "07" as opposed to "05"

 

very interesting!!!!! Let me confirm my numbers over here.....