CheshireCat

What are the negative effects of overtightening front swaybar endlinks?

jhthornley

don't mean to hijack your thread... similar Q:

How do you know how much to tighten sway bar end links anyway??? (I just "use the force", and make sure that both sides are similar.

thx

JT

OBE1 95Z28

Premature failure of the bushings.

shoebox

You torque the nut to the proper spec (17 lb. ft.).

Norm Peterson

Possibly broken endlinks, particularly if your bushings are polyurethane. Overtightening makes the endlink connections at the sta-bar and the LCA much more rigid, and more bending is attracted there as the suspension moves. A 10mm or so endlink bolt will (eventually) lose the argument against a 32mm or bigger sta-bar every time.


Norm

sir dyno

damn, now i feel like going out and buying a torque wrench, when i tightened mine to install poly, i just used force now im concerned.

Norm Peterson

Fortunately (?), it's mostly a fatigue thing, meaning that it takes a while, so it can't hurt to loosen and retorque what you've got. In general, the tighter you torque down the poly type, the shorter you can expect the endlink life to be if it's going to break at all. I will note that some combinations of endlink bolt and poly split bushings may trash the split bushings instead, but I have seen broken endlinks (they break through the threads just below the nut). One failure I've seen was on a 100% OE vehicle, so it's not just an aftermarket parts problem.

Without a torque wrench - and you need to be watching this closely - when the poly just barely starts to bulge add maybe 1/4 - 1/2 turn more. I'd use a little locktite blue as well.

BTW, a torque wrench is a good thing to have. If you only use one occasionally, a cheapie beam type with a pointer and a scale is enough (and is actually preferable to the click-type in terms of not having to calibrate it or having it lose the calibration for any reason).


Norm