Sway bar link bolts too short?

[woytovich]

Are the Energy Suspension sway bar links that I bought REALLY supplied with bolts that are too short OR do I need to compress the springs to push the sway bar down onto the new bushings to compress them enough to get the nut on?

Mark

[spitz17]

I jacked up the control arm to get mine in. Another option is use the old bolts and pieces etc, just swap the bushings. It is pretty tough though.

[kjphilippona]

I had to jack up the control arm like spitz17, used a rubber mallet and beat the other end of the bolt, turned the bolt and pressed down with the nut until i got it started. I for got swared a lot

[woytovich]

Thanks... the sway bar/links/mounts & bushings are all back together.

What worked for me was:

Jack up the control arm AND

have my 16 year old son out his weight on the fender to further compress the spring AND

to compress and seat the entire assembly: thread on the nut without the top steel washer and THEN I could get to the first couple of threads to get the nut started.

Now: what's the scoop on how tight to make that nut. I suppose once the bolt head peaks out of the top of the nylock nut it's going to stay put. I guess I'll check it once it's back on the tires to see if there is any play in the bushings and tighten some more if need be?

Mark

PS. Oh yes, a healthy dose of cursing WAS a part of the operation too.

[woytovich]

Ok... for the record I have a better method than stated earlier:

Jack up the strut from under the ball joint (being careful not to damage the ball joint or anything else) just enough to better align the sway bar with the transverse link.

Assemble the sway bar bushing pieces between the sway bar and the TL, leaving off the rubber bushing under the transverse link. (bolt goes down from the top so the nut is underneath)

Put the nut and washer on the bolt and tighten partially.

Use one of those rubber padded clamps (http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00931484000P?prdNo=3&blockNo=3&blockType=) and clamp between the top of the sway bar bushing bolt down to the transverse link. The padding helps it hold on at the odd angle.

Remove the nut and washer underneath... check to see if you have enough thread to reassemble with the rubber bushing. If not, repeat the above until you can...

The clamp is not strong enough to compress the rubbers in the assembly but it is strong enough to hold it once your tightening of the nut does the compression

Hope this makes sense.

Mark

Edited June 24, 2010 by woytovich

[gnosez]

One way of tightening would be to check the corner balance weights before and after you tighten the bushing nuts. If they change you have to back off a bit.

A more practical way would be to tighten them to the correct FSM torque as listed...

[woytovich]

One way of tightening would be to check the corner balance weights before and after you tighten the bushing nuts. If they change you have to back off a bit.

A more practical way would be to tighten them to the correct FSM torque as listed...

I'm sorry, but I don't understand. What are "corner balance weights"?

The jist of this thread wasn't how tight to make them but how to get the nut on the bolt at all!

Mark

[jmortensen]

One way of tightening would be to check the corner balance weights before and after you tighten the bushing nuts. If they change you have to back off a bit.

That doesn't make sense to me. Corner weights with a person in the car, or not? I would suggest that if you're corner weighting and still using bushings on the swaybar that you do it this way to eliminate preloading the bar:

1. Disconnect driver's side of swaybars and loosen the passengers side so that the bar just barely touches the bushing.

2. Set corner weights with driver in the car.

3. Have someone add spacers (washers) to the driver's side so that the bar rests on the bushing on the driver side the same as the passenger side with the driver in the car.

4. Tighten end links evenly.

If you aren't doing the steps above, then you're leaving the links so loose that the bar is in a neutral position with nobody in the car. This basically means that you're setting the bar so that when you get in it's preloaded, which means the car will react differently in right/left turns.

Really heims joints are better for reducing preload, because you can easily tell when the turnbuckle gets loose or when the bolt holding the bearing in isn't preloaded. Much harder to accurately eliminate preload when using bushings.

Mark, all of this post is race stuff. Just ignore if you're putting sway bars on your street car.

Edited June 25, 2010 by jmortensen

[John Coffey]

Its important from a handling perspective to make sure the anti-roll bar does not preload to either side of the car. What John (gnose) refers to above is a racer technique to make sure you're not prelaoding either side of the car.

For a non-racer in their garage, here's how to do it.

1. Back off the end link nuts until the bolt just protrudes out the top of the nut.

2. Lower the car to the ground and roll it back and forth a bit to settle the suspension.

3. Put your son in the driver's seat.

4. Slowly tighten down one side while checking each of the end link bushings by turning them. When all four can't be turned anymore, stop tightening that side.

5. Go to the other side and repeat step 4.

6. Tighten both sides to 25 ft. lbs.

[jmortensen]

Nevermind. I didn't read. You said "for the non-racer".

Edited June 25, 2010 by jmortensen

[John Coffey]

This is a quick and dirty method for someone with a street car and a garage floor.

Spinning each bushing and stopping the tightening process when all four won't spin anymore gets things pretty even on both sides. From there going to 25 ft. lbs. is maybe 1 to 1.5 turns.

The OP is probably not worried about a 15 lb. pre-laod difference.

[John Coffey]

Post swapping... :-)