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Posted by: 914bub Jul 15 2015, 06:34 PM

So yesterday I was under my car working on my exhaust when I looked forward and saw this:



I am going to add a sway bar so I was thrilled to find out I already had them but I'm wondering why I do? The car is a 72 and there's no evidence of damage in the past that would have made replacing both lower control arms necessary. It also does not have holes as if it had a sway bar and somebody removed it.Tabs are factory welded.

Anybody else run into this?

Not sure why the pic is upside down but you get the idea.

Posted by: Montreal914 Jul 15 2015, 06:39 PM

My 73 was originally a 1.7 therefore no factory sway bars. My front trailing arm already had the U tabs. It made the installation of the swaybar somewhat easier.

Posted by: wndsnd Jul 15 2015, 06:41 PM

Ditto the same for my 73.

However, is that a hole in your A-arm?

Posted by: Larmo63 Jul 15 2015, 06:44 PM

Yes, that is a hole in his A arm. They all have them, it's the end of the welded bar that gussets the arm.

Posted by: wndsnd Jul 15 2015, 06:53 PM

Learn something every day here!

Posted by: Porschef Jul 15 2015, 07:39 PM

My 76 has the tabs welded in from the factory. Also made installing the bar much easier. Maybe they gave the young welders somethin to practice on, a big crate of lower control arms with tabs periodically refilled...

Posted by: Dave_Darling Jul 15 2015, 10:33 PM

Probably easier to just make more than you need with tabs than to figure out the exact number and make only those.

--DD

Posted by: 914bub Jul 16 2015, 01:14 PM

Dave
I hadn't considered the fact that you might have been able to order a sway bar as an option. I knew LE's had them but I thought those were the only cars that came with a sway bar as standard equipment. Did 6's have them? Did "later" cars have them standard? If they were optional for other years any idea how much they cost?

Posted by: vw505 Jul 16 2015, 02:42 PM

My 73 had tabs, and yes adding the bar was easy.

Posted by: 914Sixer Jul 16 2015, 03:17 PM

Starting in 75 the U tabs were deleted. However when the 76 production run started, they used all the parts they could find on the shelf. Most 75-76's did not have them.

Posted by: Old Yella Jul 16 2015, 05:48 PM

saw this?



Attached image(s)

Posted by: Dave_Darling Jul 17 2015, 09:20 AM

They were standard on the 73 2.0 (with a few exceptions). Optional on all other 73+ 914s. Not sure on the earlier ones, nor on the Sixes.

--DD

Posted by: maf914 Jul 17 2015, 02:16 PM

My 76 had factory a-arm tabs but no factory sway bar. I added H&H bars, front and rear, many years ago. The front sway bar drop links bolted up directly to the tabs. Very nice handling improvement.