I installed Energy Suspension poly bushings on my sway bar tonight and according to Chilton's, Haynes, and Mitchell's.. the stock torque setting is 35 ft lbs. I stripped two nuts already trying to get to 35, I left them at around 15 ft lbs and put thread lock on for now. My bushings didn't come with instructions so I don't know what they recommend. Anyone?

Here's the nut I'm talking about:

 

prolly 20lbs tops. they don't need to be that tight. there not going anywhere.

my car came with poly endlinks from the factory.

 

35 is for rubber endlink bushings. You don't need or want anywhere near that much with poly because poly is so much stiffer. Too tight means that you'll start to bend the endlink bolt as the suspension moves. Good move with the threadlock though.

Norm

 

YIKES!!!! I kinda just bolted em on til I felt they were tight enough. I'm not sure.. but I don't think they should look like this huh?? If not, are they still savable if I back them off a bit? or is this actually ok??

 

The second picture doesn't look too bad, but the first is definitely overtightened. You can see there that the poly has been squashed out past the OD of the washer all the way around.

I can't tell if the car was raised up for the picture or not, but if the car's weight is completely on its tires, the endlinks are the wrong length.

The sooner that you back off on the endlink tightness, the better the chances will be of longer bushing life.


Gotta hand out credit where it's due - this thread had been sleeping for almost six and a half years . . .


Norm

 

I bought the end-links from spohn.net, spec. for my car. And the pic is when the car was raised completely off the ground.
And the 6 and a half year thing??
That's kinda how I roll, lol.