Sway bar end alignment

[Norm Peterson]

I think you forgot the spacer that goes in the middle of your " = 2 washers "


No, it's not perfect because the stiffness of the bushing material tries to bend the endlink and add a little extra stiffness that most sta-bar stiffness formulas do not even consider. Ideally, endlink pivots should be spherical pivots, which a split bushing arrangement is anywhere from a fair to a very poor approximation of. Most of the time, the OE's get away with a split bushing design because the rubber pucks are soft enough that they don't add much load or stress to the endlinks. They just "squish" instead. At least that's what happens when they use rubber. Some Ford Explorer/Expedition front bar endlinks have used a much harder substance, more like poly - perhaps even stiffer than most aftermarket endlink poly - and they have broken enough endlink bolts with that design that Moog has a specific "problem-solver" for it. I've actually seen one such case.

Clamping down on a poly-bushed endlink just makes the ends more rigid against rotation and effectively stiffens the poly still further. So the endlink bending (and stress) goes up.

Oscillation is a slow vibration of sorts, in this case kind of like the front end or one front corner can't quite make up its mind to stay in one position but rises and falls slightly instead. I'd guess that an unfortunate combination of bushing stiffness and control arm/endlink and endlink/sta-bar angles are to blame (and the bar is adding some variable amount of ride rate).




Norm