I was planning on buying new polyureathane sway bar end links for my Firebird as the old ones are absolutely shot. I planned on buying them from a well-known aftermarket company and checked with our local dealer. Well, they were out. I then decided that I would just go with the stock replacements and be done with it.

I wandered into Advance Auto Parts and asked for the end links. I was asked if I wanted the regular or heavy duty ones. I am one that always goes with the heavy duty option if one is available. When I got my boxes with the links, I asked what the real difference was between the regular and heavy duty ones. I was told that the heavy ones had the polyurethane bushings! I checked the box and low and behold these things have the poly bushings like the big name brand does! They were also cheaper than the big name as well! The brand is TRW and their sway bar bushing numbers that end in "HD" are the poly ones. I thought it was interesting that I saved money and got the same thing that I started out searching for.
Brad

PS- They said that they can also get the poly frame bushings as well... Hmmmmmmm.....

 

Frame bushings?

 

Yeah, the bushings that go into the sway bar brackets that go to the frame/rear axle. The links go through the ends of the bars to the A-arms in front, and the bars have a bushing that slides over them about a third of the way in from each end and are clamped to the front frame in two places. The rears have these mounts bolted to the rear axle with u-bolts if memory serves me correctly. Frame mount may not be the best term to use for these.

 

Ah ok, most people call those sway bar bushings. Frame bushings makes me think of body mounts, which our cars don't have of course.