Installing Police Sway Bar

[slexwild]

I was able to score a second Police sway bar and guage cluster off an 85. I have read sometimes there are no holes, 1 hole or 2 holes for the rear sway bar on non sway bar cars. Does anyone have a write up?

Also, are there any wierd things that come up with installing the police cluster?

[Arquemann]

For what's it worth, my 85 MGM has the holes but no sway bar. Rather it be the other way around...

[87gtVIC]

Nothing weird about the police cluster.

May want to swap out the shift pattern thing for your current one as the police ones had a different pattern. But other than that it will go right into place.

[gadget73]

Have to look at the control arms. Some have 2 holes, some have one. You can drill the second hole if needed but I dont' remember if the single hole is the front or rear one. My car had both and it just went together.

Did you get the spacers that sit inside the control arm? If not you can fake it with some pieces of pipe cut to length or a big stack of washers. Without the spacers the arm will just collapse when you bolt it up though.

[slexwild]

Have to look at the control arms. Some have 2 holes, some have one. You can drill the second hole if needed but I dont' remember if the single hole is the front or rear one. My car had both and it just went together.

Did you get the spacers that sit inside the control arm? If not you can fake it with some pieces of pipe cut to length or a big stack of washers. Without the spacers the arm will just collapse when you bolt it up though.

Looks like i got the spacers.

[Tiggie]

If you have one hole, bolt it up to the one hole and drill the second. Had to drill my 90. The 82 and 88 were a bolt in.

[kishy]

My 84 and 85 had both holes, my 91 only had the one, and the one that was present is the one towards the front of the car IIRC.

Note that the presence of the second hole is not the only determining factor for if an arm was originally designed to have a sway bar, there is some (probably based in fact) lore that I remember about the arms for sway bar equipped cars being made of thicker steel that is rolled over more at the open end to add rigidity. But that's no reason not to use the arms you have.

I wonder if it's a 90-91 thing specifically re: only the one hole. Something to do with the 90 Town Car adopting the sway bar design of the aeros.

[Mainemantom]

I used to have a 84 CV police car. One question that I don't remember the answer. When changing the cluster to a police type, Doesn't the speedometer cable gear at the transmission have to be changed to an orange gear ?
As far as the holes on the control arms, There was one car that I had that I needed to drill another hole on each arm. If I remember right it was the front hole that needed to be added.
Did the donor car have the police gauge package which would be located either where the radio would be (two gauges) or on the right side dash panel (three gauges) IF those are available, get them and be sure to get ALL the wiring in the gauge specific loom from the dash to the engine bay. The removal of the wiring is not easy but well worth it.

[Tiggie]

The speedo takes care of the calibration change; no gear changes needed.
The police cluster in my 88 is dead nuts on the money based off every drive by radar I have been through. The one in the 90 (different design) is quite a bit off at speeds under 30. IMO They shoved too many numbers in too small of a space on that car.

[sly]

but that flex yo!

But that flex...

[slexwild]

I used to have a 84 CV police car. One question that I don't remember the answer. When changing the cluster to a police type, Doesn't the speedometer cable gear at the transmission have to be changed to an orange gear ?
As far as the holes on the control arms, There was one car that I had that I needed to drill another hole on each arm. If I remember right it was the front hole that needed to be added.
Did the donor car have the police gauge package which would be located either where the radio would be (two gauges) or on the right side dash panel (three gauges) IF those are available, get them and be sure to get ALL the wiring in the gauge specific loom from the dash to the engine bay. The removal of the wiring is not easy but well worth it.

Unfortunately These we left over parts from a teardown 9 years ago, the guy had them in storage.

[jaywish]

IIRC 89 wagon had thick control arms with only one hole. I am certain that they were the thick ones. Not certain about hole count.

[gadget73]

Someone did post measurements from a civi and a PI car on here, and the arms were thicker on the police car.

Never measured them on my Towncar but it did have the flats on the lip for bar clearance. Tow package car though, so not impossible that meant it got the heavier duty control arms. My space with the computer that has the master parts manual has been hijacked for a bit so I can't check to see if that can shed some light on this.