After getting everything back together from the axle debauchle, i've been driving around the car for a few days and it still seems to have a 'clunk' coming from mainly the driver front side. I think i've narrowed it down to the sway bar or swaybar endlink. The endlink looks fine to me, the boot isn't torn and nothing is leaking out around the joint.

With the car on the ground, i can bounce it on the LH side and hear the clunk. when i do this while looking underneath the car, it looks like there is some looseness between the sway bar and the link that connects to the strut. It looks to me like there is some slop in the hole through the sway bar...like the nut on the endlink isn't tightened enough. There is maybe 1/4" of play where the swaybar can slide over the shaft of the endlink.

I was talking to a buddy about it this weekend, and he asked if i pre-loaded the sway bar before tightening everythign down. When the suspension was done, i did put in new end links, but everything was tightened with the front end up in the air...no adjustments were made after the wheels were in contact w/ the ground, although everything was tightened up good and there was no play w/ it in the air. I'm wondering if i did something wrong that allowed the nut to be loose. Is there a need to pre-load the sway bar when doing a suspension? If so, what's the best way to do this


I also noticed that there is a little play that allows the sway bar to rotate a little bit. not much, maybe 10 degrees or so. The rotation is in the same plane that the tire would spin. Is this normal? Both sides have this to some degree.

Any ideas?

 

Did you leave the Nut loose?
If the nut is tight then the link is bad.

NO NEED TO PRELOAD.

If you jack it up or put it on the lift and move the sway bar up and down you should feel the sway bar move.
The links go bad all the time.

 

i wonder if driving around on completely shot spring seats for 2 months caused the endlinks to go bad.

So if i understand correctly, I tighten both nuts on the endlinks w/ the front end up in the air. If there is movement in the link while in the air it's bad. Is that right? I thought the endlinks were only bad if the boot was ripped and the joint inside was botched up.

 

If you feel slop they are bad.
They are easier to install with the car in the air.
The boot could look new and still be bad. I see it all the time.

I doubt they went bad from that.