-Energy suspension 1” Performance greasable Sway Bar Bushings p/n 9.5161R 16.99 from Checkers
  (you don’t have to use the greasable ones, these were the only 1” bushes the store had)

-Energy suspension 1 5/8” Performance Complete End link Set p/n 9.8120R 14.99 from Checkers

-Factory front Sway bar from any 1982-1985 Celica, Cost varies
 

I believe the R on the end of the part numbers means red. Colors don’t matter obviously, they were just the only ones available at my part store.

I originally was going to use factory sway bar bushings for an 85 Celica, but they wound up costing only a dollar less than the energy suspension bushings <_< . And I was planning on going to poly in the future anyhow, so I figured I would spend the extra buck and do it now.

TOOLS NEEDED:

-12 and 14 mm sockets and combination wrenches

- short and medium extensions

- 9/16� socket and combo wrench (for Energy Suspension end links)

- short pry bar with pointed end, or a medium Philips head screwdriver (for lining up strut rod brackets)

- Die grinder, with cutoff wheel and round bit (for modification of course)

SWAY BAR COMPARISON

As you can see the sway bar from the 85 is much beefier than the one off the 77

The shape is also very similar

Note the difference in bushing size



You'll start by removing the sway bar from your 1st gen Celica. You'll need to unbolt the strut rod brackets from the frame and unbolt the strut rods from the control arm. Don't bother with the big nut on the end of the strut rod. Pull the whole thing as an assembly. That way when you put it back together your alignment won't be really far off. Besides two bolts are much simpler to deal with than that large nut which is most likely rusty and hard to remove anyway.

The sway bar attaches to the control arms with end links, and to the frame via the strut rod brackets. As seen in the above picture the new bushings are quite a bit larger than the stockers. This does present a problem, which I will show with pictures.

Here is the strut rod bracket, where the sway bar attaches
to it. You will see a raised spot between two bolt holes. This is where the stock bushing rides. The stock bracket is longer to account for this.

Firstly the brackets supplied with the new bushings don't have the extra length built in. This means that the brackets holding the bushing and sway bar to the frame would not be flush. Don't know if its actually bad or not but I didn't like it. Secondly because the new bushings are bigger the spacer causes the hole in the bushing to be raised to the point that the sway bar doesn't fit through the strut rod bracket ( I couldn't get the bushing on with the bar in the hole)
This is seen here

This picture shows how the stock bushing looks on the bracket. Note the position of the hole in the bushing

The solution is to cut off those raised portions. Luckily they are just stamped steel pieces that have been spot welded to the strut rod bracket.

Cut like so:

And make sure to smooth out the sharp metal or you risk cutting your bushing to bits

And now the hole in the bushing is in a much better spot in relation to the bracket

The brackets that hold the bar to frame bushings also had to be modified

As seen here:

They each have a corner cut down/rounded. The holes also had to be hogged out towards the center of the bracket.

Because of the stock holes being so close together, the heads of the bolts on the brackets are right up against the vertical part of the bracket (not the best situation but I didn't want to try modding something else, and I wanted this finished today). This meant no sockets could be used. You instead have to use an open ended wrench and turn the bolts no more than ½ a turn at a time. I didn't want to do this laying on my back, so I bolted the sway bar to the brackets off the car.

Seen here:

Yes its slightly harder to put the whole assembly into the car, but at the time I preferred that option to turning 4 bolts in ½ turn at a time on my back in a cramped area.

The new bar is slightly wider than the original, which wouldn't allow you to easily use the stock end links, as it puts them at quite an angle. So I opted for new slightly longer end links which had to be at less of an angle to attach the sway bar.

So anyways, put everything back together and you get this:

If you lift the car, remember to set it back down before you tighten the end links. And try to be on as level of ground as possible.

IMPRESSIONS

It feels awesome. The rest of the suspension is stock and mushy as a "warm tube of goo". Body roll is reduced markedly and provides a new confidence in the vehicle. This is probably the best 30 bucks I have spent on this car so far.

1st Gen Swaybar Upgrade
http://www.celica-gts.com/forums/index.php?topic=14568.0