I have never torqued mine down to any kind of spec and have never had any problems even after removing the STB 30 plus times since I have had it instaled. The car is still in perfect alighment too.

I just make sure to tighten the bolts down in a patern sequence. I go front left, back right, back right and front left turning the nuts a few times each sequence till they are god and tight.

Since you've changed the struts, i'll ask you this question: How much of a job is it to change struts on these cars? Or the shocks on the back, for that matter? Any special tools needed?

Also curious what a good set of struts runs these days? How about shocks for the back?

At least I think that'* what we have on the back end. Am I wrong?

I just had to go and look at the rear of my car, and sure enough, it is a kind of strut suspension. The thing that threw me off is that the springs are not a part of that assembly. My bad.

I actually got around to doing this mod today. Since it was a nice day, I decided i'd go and check out the local "auto parts recycler", U-Wrench It (Holland, MI). It took two cars to get the parts I needed. One car had a perfect, rust free STB - until some moron took a sawsall to it. So I took the left and right ends off of that car. Another car had a decent looking bar, with some surface rust, but the end brackets were all rusted to heck. Thus I got my bar and ends. If you live in the area though, don't go to U-Wrench It looking for the same STB, at least not for a while - I got the only complete assembly there.

Total cost (including $1 to get into the place): $9.75

I went home and removed the 4 locknuts. I removed the old metal strips between the two studs. I bolted the bar in place with the ends loosely attached, THEN I tightened the bolts holding the bar to the end pieces. I think it'* less likely to change the alignment that way. I didn't use a torque wrench, but I know that I tightened the nuts down to around the same torque that it took to get them off of the donor cars - maybe a little less to compensate for rust on the junk cars. The newer cars seem to be torqued tighter than my '89 was, and I think it'* because of the added stress caused by the STB, and that'* why I torqued it more toward that figure.

The car seems to be noticably tighter, more ridgid. Maybe i'm nuts, but I don't think there'* quite as much body roll now.

Also, I CAN get off my (non-ABS) brake fluid cap. It'* a bit tight, but I was able to do it without too much trouble.

Thanks again for all of the advice and wisdom. -jon

Wait untill the next time you take the car down some twisty mountain type roads and then you will really feel a big difference.

You know... it makes me wonder how much flex there was to start with? Has anyone ever taken their bar off, and found a way to measure the amount of change in the distance between strut towers (while they drive around)?

I can think of one way to measure body flex:

1) remove the STB if you have one.
2) on each side where the STB would have been, install a bracket with a hole drilled in it for a piece of metal rod to go through.
3) Put a piece of rod between the two brackets, ridgidly attached at one side, but sliding through the hole on the other side.
4) Use O-rings or something on the rod (on each side of the bracket) to measure how far it slides back and forth (while the body is flexing) durring a "spirited" drive.

Now, to convince somebody to go out and do this....

Take one for the team, J. I'm not taking my beautiful ADTR red Strut bar off until I put the ADTR Strut/Engine brace on.

Taking it off on a 92+ will definitely be felt. Most full sized GM'* 92+ have them. They used the bar for lateral reinforcement of the chassis.

I assume they were not useds (STB'*) on 87-91, simply due to lack of extra stress on the chassis (weight related maybe)?

I'm going tomorow to have a look and see what they have. Its an inexpensive mod and will totally eliminate front end body roll.

Jseabert and I were just poking around the Chevy dealer here in town. The MC and Impala strut bars are wimpy. WAY wimpy. Very disappointing. What do the new SSEi bars look like? Anything like the 92-99?

I'd do it, but I don't have the resources to fabricate the necessary parts. Plus, my car isn't exactly factory fresh, and we've got some rust in some structural places. Quite sad, really.