craigw1

Hi guys

weekend just past decided to fit the poly bushes and end links for my rear sway bar. quite simple enough...all the bolts came loose ok....

BUT

when fitting everything back together I noticed that the bar is not symmetrical !

Is this the way it should be ? Its flat on the LH side, but the RH side is slightly curved. Means that when i was putting in the RH side, the bar was putting downward pressure, ie i had to exert upward pressure to bolt it to the link. Opposite was happening on the LH side ie there the bar was putting upward pressure and I had to press downwards to get it onto the bottom of the link.

in the end, I loosened the whole thing from the two points on the diff, then bolted on the 2 end links lightly, then pushed the bar upwards back towards the diff, bolted those two points, then finally tightened up both end links.

has anyone had a similar experience ? or is my bar bust and should be absolutely symmetrical ? the bars all look symmetrical in black dragon auto catalog

also, i think i might have aligned it wrong...when i take a left turn now i hear a knocking sound...i suspect end link washer/bolt is now hitting against the body. no knocking noise if i turn right or going straight...even if i go over a bump...only when going left...even if a slow left like in a parking lot.

geez..this started out as a minor saturday afternoon upgrade....6 bolts to loosen in all...how difficult could it be ? now this *(&^%$

trochoid

iTrader: (6)

The stock rear bar is not symetrical, the aftermarket ones are. You may need to shift your bar to one side or the other to eliminate the knocking.

craigw1

thanks for the confirmation

don't want to open another can of worms here, but was just searching now for posts regarding the rear sway...and some people actually remove it completely. I;ll try that as well this weekend and see what its like

i've also got the watts poly set so going to be putting that on this saturday

slashdawg00110

Wow. I got new bushings and went to reinstall mine a few weeks ago. Looked at the bar and went - WTF! when I noticed the same thing. So now I know it shouldn't be symmetrical. Glad I'm not the only one wondering if I bent something I didn't mean to bend.

craigw1

well, at one point i was considering taking it to an engineering shop to heat up the bend and straighten it so that the two ends are aligned....but then thought i'd post here first and search as well...surely someone else will have had the same experience

trochoid

iTrader: (6)

If you were to heat it up, then it wouldn't be a sway bar anymore unless the entire bar was heated and cooled per specs for that particular type of spring steel.