Sway bar endlinks

[rheckman]

Hey all, 

Wondering if anyone has come across tight fitting angle where sway bar endlinks are concerned.

The top of the sway bar is tilted downward ,the usually are but I'm out of room for the links.

The links i took off had the spacers cut i think,they are definitely shorter.

About a 1/4 inch.

Sway bar is 1.12 dia,on 1970 gto ram air

Thanks

Bob H

 

[Frosty]

I'm having a hard time imagining what you are describing Bob. Can you share a picture or two?

I run a 1.25 sway bar on my '72 Lemans. The sway bar is from a 2nd-gen WS6 Trans Am.

[rheckman]

I will, 

Thx

[rheckman]

Here is the endlink.

Note the angle of the bar as it attaches to the top of the endlink,leaves a gap at the top.

It was worse,this pic is after i loosened bushing to frame bolts and let the bar hang down a bit.

When I removed the previous links they were loose and had an even larger gap at the top of endlink.

As i bought this just this past August i don't have anyway of knowing if the bar is the right bar or not.

Not sure why they had smaller spacers on endlinks either.

Thx

[JUSTA6]

1st thing I notice is the twist in spacers jambed in the springs which are obviously bad, affecting overall ride height.  Looks like you've done a good job with the new ball joints, tie rod ends.  Justa quick question.  Do you have cotter keys in the new tie rod ends and ball joints?  If not those need to be installed right away.  (kinda hard to see in the pic's)  There should not be any gap in the end link.   Is this a pic of the wheel lifted?? or sitting on the ground??

[TWO LANE BLACK TOP]

Is the car suspended on a lift with the suspension unloaded...Or sitting on the ground with the weight sitting on the suspension or loaded..??

[TWO LANE BLACK TOP]

11 minutes ago, JUSTA6 said:

1st thing I notice is the twist in spacers jambed in the springs which are obviously bad, affecting overall ride height.  Looks like you've done a good job with the new ball joints, tie rod ends.  Justa quick question.  Do you have cotter keys in the new tie rod ends and ball joints?  If not those need to be installed right away.  (kinda hard to see in the pic's)  There should not be any gap in the end link.   Is this a pic of the wheel lifted?? or sitting on the ground??

Wasn't trying to repeat the same question....Guess we were both asking at the same time....LOL....

Do agree with the spring spacer observation....

Edited January 3, 2019 by TWO LANE BLACK TOP

[TWO LANE BLACK TOP]

If the car is on a lift with the wheels hanging with no weight on the suspension that gap between the sway bar and the end links is normal..When the car is on the ground with all the weight on the suspension there should be no gap at all....The only reason that I can think of for the shorter end links would be an attempt to change the tension on the sway bar for  handling purposes...(good or bad)....

Edited January 3, 2019 by TWO LANE BLACK TOP

[rheckman]

The car is on the ground, I'm just getting into this car and I'm finding things of course.

The spring spacing would account for some extra height causing some of the gap but not much.

And I'm not sure why they are there,i will have to pull apart to look at.

I didn't do the front end work,front seems ok,but the bar and links were loose and spaced more than these.

I ordered a new bar from Summit,then i can compare.

I could make spacer plates to put between frame and bushing brackets,that would bring the angle down some...

[TWO LANE BLACK TOP]

Is it possible that the mounts on the frame are not the correct ones or maybe the rubber in them worn and collapsed....?? Then again may have had spacers in them from the factory...But Honestly I can't say for sure.... .Don't really want to give any bad info.....

Edited January 3, 2019 by TWO LANE BLACK TOP

[rheckman]

I replaced with new bushings. On the ground everything should seat correctly.if the new bar sets up the same i will make frame spacers,maybe .37 -.50 thick.

Thanks

[Frosty]

I suspect we are dealing with a miss-mash of unmatched parts here. First of all, if this was the original front sway bar, it would be a 7/8" factory piece. You said that it was a 1.12" or 1 1/8". It is an improvement over the original but all the bushing and sway bar end links have to be match parts to that size sway bar. My suspicion lies with someone getting the sway bar from one place and buying the bushings and end links from somewhere else.

You said you ordered another sway bar from Summit. Does it come with matching frame bushings and sway bar end links too? I hope so.

Thank you for post the picture by the way.

One other question, does the sway bar come close to the harmonic balancer at all? If so, then the sway bar maybe installed upside down (I know this from personal experience).

[Last Indian]

On 12/28/2018 at 10:19 PM, rheckman said:

Hey all, 

Wondering if anyone has come across tight fitting angle where sway bar endlinks are concerned.

The top of the sway bar is tilted downward ,the usually are but I'm out of room for the links.

The links i took off had the spacers cut i think,they are definitely shorter.

About a 1/4 inch.

Sway bar is 1.12 dia,on 1970 gto ram air

Thanks

Bob H

 

I may be wrong, but I don’t think so! The bar is upside down! You need to flip it, left side on the right and right side on the left. Sway bars have a specific curve to them that orients them flat or not when installed. If you flip it, it won’t be flat, like yours!

Edited January 3, 2019 by Last Indian

[JUSTA6]

21 hours ago, TWO LANE BLACK TOP said:

Wasn't trying to repeat the same question....Guess we were both asking at the same time....LOL....

Do agree with the spring spacer observation....

Think I pushed submit, 1 sec sooner than you. LOL

[TWO LANE BLACK TOP]

6 hours ago, Last Indian said:

I may be wrong, but I don’t think so! The bar is upside down! You need to flip it, left side on the right and right side on the left. Sway bars have a specific curve to them that orients them flat or not when installed. If you flip it, it won’t be flat, like yours!

That's an excellent observation....Good eye....

[rheckman]

I don't believe it's upside down.

According to the 1970 Pontiac manual ,but who knows.

[Last Indian]

1 hour ago, rheckman said:

I don't believe it's upside down.

According to the 1970 Pontiac manual ,but who knows.

Obviously I’m not there to see it’s orientation, but the sway bar attaches to the top side of the frame, at least normally, which is a fix position of height. A certain portion of the ends of the bar curve downward towards the Aarms and levels out. Yours appears to curve upward, so you are then pulling the eyelet of the bar down to meet the end link. That places the eyelet on an angle instead of being level. Or so it appears in your picture. This would not be the first time I’ve seen this happen.

[rheckman]

Picture cropped on me,but here is view looking at drivers side you. Can just see bushing to frame in upper left corner.

[Last Indian]

13 hours ago, rheckman said:

Picture cropped on me,but here is view looking at drivers side you. Can just see bushing to frame in upper left corner.

Pictures are good, but there’s nothing like being there, but I’m not, so I would offer this advice. A sway bar usually does not stick up as high as the upper part of the frame, so I think it’s upside down, but let’s assume that it’s right. 

Take both end links off and rotate the bar until the eyelets are parallel with the lower Aarm. If you encounter no interference with the frame or any other suspension component and you can see that there is nothing that might become interference with some additional movement than that’s were the bar needs to set. So you may have to get or make new end links because the ones you have are to short. Also as a side note, it may just be the picture, but it appears you have no rubber bushing between the lower Aarm and the washer of the end link, is that correct? If so you need washers and rubber bushings on both sides of the Aarm where the end link bolt goes through, still I presume it’s the picture. 

That said the bar may still be upside down! I have seen bars that will go on either way, but keeping the end links as short as possible makes for a better transfer of energy without defection. So I would still recommend flipping the bar to see were it orients to in relationship to a horizontal position of the eyelets to the lower Aarms. Following the same observation as suggested above. If there is no interference with the frame, Aarms or other suspension parts and you have a reasonable distance between the eyelet bottom and the Aarm (2”) is enough, I would go with the shorter end links.

[rheckman]

Cool,thanks.

I have a new bar coming today,as I also have no idea if the one thats on there is right.

Im going to find out.

Thx

[rheckman]

For what  it's worth here is the new bar fits good,I don't know what or where the other bar came from but it had some radical bends in it

Thanks to all who replied,

Bob H

[Frosty]

Well that could explain a lot of things. Let us know if it handles differently now too. Thanks for the follow-up.

Edited January 7, 2019 by Frosty

[Last Indian]

14 hours ago, rheckman said:

For what  it's worth here is the new bar fits good,I don't know what or where the other bar came from but it had some radical bends in it

Thanks to all who replied,

Bob H

Great news Bob, looks good and correct! Like Frosty said, let us know if you see some noticeable improvement.