sca037

My '85.5 has the following options:
CO2 158 220 383 387 404 425 431

My question relates to the 404 Stabilizer Bars option.
I know that at the time any rear bar was optional, and all 944 models had a front bar.
My question is did the 404 option get you a larger front bar as well?
Our car is pretty original, the (both solid) front bar measures 23mm and the rear is 14mm....does this sound right for option 404?

Brian

Techno Duck

That sounds right to me. The largest bar the 8v n/a cars was 23mm, in '86 the 951 got a 24mm and from there on up there was a 25.5 and the 26.8 (then the 30mm 968 bar of course).

Waterguy

You probably have a 23 mm by 3.5 mm wall thickness hollow front bar and a 14 mm solid rear bar. Stock suspension for an 85.5 was a 20 mm solid front bar, no rear bar. Optional sway bars (M404) were EITHER a 21.5 mm solid OR a 23 mm hollow front bar and a 14 mm solid rear bar. The 21.5 mm solid bar and the 23 mm hollow bar have the same effective rate, but the 23 mm bar is lighter. There is no difference in outer appearance between a solid and hollow bar. The largest solid sway bar Porsche used on a 944 series car was the 21.5 mm bar iirc.

sca037

Thanks for the enlightenment guys......where can I read more about this?
I bought used 951 sways to upgrade with, the rear is the non-adjustable 19mm but the front measures out as 24.3-4mm or so. Is this an odd size or non-stock front bar that I'll have difficulty finding bushings for?

Thanks,
Brian

jaje

I just bought a poorly treated '84 944.

It has the m404 sport package - swaybars and sport shocks (option code 456 I think). Mine has the 23mm front hollow sway bar (have yet to measure the rear to confirm its size). It looks like it's only a 14mm rear.

Waterguy

Sounds like you have a 24 mm x 3.7 mm hollow front bar. This was the standard bar on 951s during '86 and early '87. You should have no trouble finding bushings. The rear bar is probably an 18 mm non-adjustable, which was the standard rear sway bar on all 951s (standard and M030) until mid-1989, when they downsized to 16 mm. All the 19 mm bars are 3-way adjustable.

I get my information from the factory service manuals. Skip had an excellent technical article on 944 sway bars on the Paragon Products website (look for Technical Articles), but the last time I tried it I couldn't get into the articles.