First let me say that I'm a Whiteline fan and have their panhard bar and both sway bars. The panhard bar went in great as did the rear sway bar. But I didn't like the way the front sway bar went in, so i did something about it.
here in lies the crux of my problem, the bushing "squished" out leaving a gap that I can't help but think lessens it's effectiveness and made for an uneven surface for the shaft collar to butt up against.
the other side didn't had the same problem but the shaft collar just happened to be up against the "flat" side.
close up of the "squishedness", can't be optimal for performance of the bushing. My theory as to why this happens is because the bar's diameter is 33mm, but that must be measured before the powder coating. Add powder coating and we get a measured 34+mm diameter. The bushings ID is 33mm, add a tight sway bar saddle and we get squish.
the shaft collars also had the 33mm ID problem making them not fit over the sway. I realize it needs to be tight to avoid slipping, but you can't even get the two halfs of the shaft collar close enough together to engage the damn bolts. I had to use a C-Clamp to compress the two halfs onto the shaft enough to get the bolts to engage and even then there was very little thread engagement and I was way to afraid to torque down on them to get the collar tighter.
Enter my fix. New shaft collars and sway bar bushings with saddles. I ordered the shaft collars from amazon supply, they are 33mm ID collars with a meatier build and larger bolts. The bushings are Energy suspensions 33mm grease-able bushings with saddle.
Here is the result. I was a little concerned about the sway bar hitting the mounting area because the new bushings are considerably shorter, but everything clears fine. No bushing ( being thinner and all ) squishing out the sides and making gaps. Because the sway bar is now closer to the mounting area and the new collars are larger I couldn't butt the collars up againts the bushings, so I moved them to the outside and the actually but up against the chassis. I did run into the exact same damn problem with the collars, I couldn't get the two halves close enough together to engage the bolts and these new collars are too stout to press on with a C-clamp. So I had to grind off the powder coating to get them close enough for the bolts to engage some thread and even then very little thread is engaged. So I've ordered longer socket cap bolts to install that will get me more thread engagement and make me more comfortable about torquing down the bolts a bit. Unfortunately the local hardware stores didn't have the bolts in the hardware section, as they are 1/4"-28 ( fine thread ) they only had the 1/4"-20( coarse thread ) thus the order online solution.
Anyway I thought I'd share and see what the fine folks here thought of my solution and if my "problem" was imagined or real.
Thanks,
James
here in lies the crux of my problem, the bushing "squished" out leaving a gap that I can't help but think lessens it's effectiveness and made for an uneven surface for the shaft collar to butt up against.
the other side didn't had the same problem but the shaft collar just happened to be up against the "flat" side.
close up of the "squishedness", can't be optimal for performance of the bushing. My theory as to why this happens is because the bar's diameter is 33mm, but that must be measured before the powder coating. Add powder coating and we get a measured 34+mm diameter. The bushings ID is 33mm, add a tight sway bar saddle and we get squish.
the shaft collars also had the 33mm ID problem making them not fit over the sway. I realize it needs to be tight to avoid slipping, but you can't even get the two halfs of the shaft collar close enough together to engage the damn bolts. I had to use a C-Clamp to compress the two halfs onto the shaft enough to get the bolts to engage and even then there was very little thread engagement and I was way to afraid to torque down on them to get the collar tighter.
Enter my fix. New shaft collars and sway bar bushings with saddles. I ordered the shaft collars from amazon supply, they are 33mm ID collars with a meatier build and larger bolts. The bushings are Energy suspensions 33mm grease-able bushings with saddle.
Here is the result. I was a little concerned about the sway bar hitting the mounting area because the new bushings are considerably shorter, but everything clears fine. No bushing ( being thinner and all ) squishing out the sides and making gaps. Because the sway bar is now closer to the mounting area and the new collars are larger I couldn't butt the collars up againts the bushings, so I moved them to the outside and the actually but up against the chassis. I did run into the exact same damn problem with the collars, I couldn't get the two halves close enough together to engage the bolts and these new collars are too stout to press on with a C-clamp. So I had to grind off the powder coating to get them close enough for the bolts to engage some thread and even then very little thread is engaged. So I've ordered longer socket cap bolts to install that will get me more thread engagement and make me more comfortable about torquing down the bolts a bit. Unfortunately the local hardware stores didn't have the bolts in the hardware section, as they are 1/4"-28 ( fine thread ) they only had the 1/4"-20( coarse thread ) thus the order online solution.
Anyway I thought I'd share and see what the fine folks here thought of my solution and if my "problem" was imagined or real.
Thanks,
James
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