Swaybar Bushing Upgrade

[atalarico]

I saw it mentioned a couple times in the early pages of this thread, but will stiffening up the bushings by going with the prothane ones reduce my off-road articulation?

I've been wheeling for the better part of 10 years, and I know I can just get disconnecting sway bar links, but just curious on this.

 

[95supra]

So I see that this is a very old thread but thought Id ask a question here instead of creating a new thread. I have a v8 with the 21mm stock rear sway bar. I already have poly bushings front and rear but still want a bit better handling to stop the swaying back and forth. I was thinking of buying the rear addco swaybar but it seems its probably the same size as the stock one I already have installed. So would I see any improvement by installing the addco rear bar?

 

[Drift Monkey]

So I'm thinking of trying the Moog K80820 up front (30mm), but I've confirmed my rear bar is 21mm (marked on the bushing). Reckon this might work? Amazon.com: Moog K90396 Sway Bar Bushing Kit: Automotive

Specs: DRiV Incorporated

0.820" works out to 20.828 mm. Brackets may or may not fit but I could always reuse the stock pieces.

 

[JONBOY345]

So I'm thinking of trying the Moog K80820 up front (30mm), but I've confirmed my rear bar is 21mm (marked on the bushing). Reckon this might work? Amazon.com: Moog K90396 Sway Bar Bushing Kit: Automotive

Specs: DRiV Incorporated

0.820" works out to 20.828 mm. Brackets may or may not fit but I could always reuse the stock pieces.

I like the Prothane greasable kits: Prothane 19-1164 for 21mm.

I ended up having the 19mm bar, so the Prothane 19-1162 worked for my truck.

 

[Drift Monkey]

I like the Prothane greasable kits: Prothane 19-1164 for 21mm.

I ended up having the 19mm bar, so the Prothane 19-1162 worked for my truck.

Ah screw it, gonna get those and the front Prothane 19-1186-BLs too lol.

 

[Drift Monkey]

Ah screw it, gonna get those and the front Prothane 19-1186-BLs too lol.

Fronts came in early so...

As a plus, the brackets are slotted to I was able to pull them forward for a little more clearance.I'll be reinstalling once my sway bar relocates/spacers get here as well.

 

[gimlithepirate]

Those look nice! I'm guessing based on it being a greasable part that the sway bar should freely move in that fitting once the endlinks are removed... Mine does not which probably means this mod is in my future xD

 

[Blute]

Anyone find some good rear 21mm bushings that you can use with the stock brackets? Haven't seen any mentioned. I'm not a big fan of the aftermarket brackets; had some break in the past when wheeling.

 

[Unner]

Just adding my data point in here.

2008 Limited V6 4x4 Non-Xreas

~30mm front bar and ~19mm rear bar

I went with Moog K80820 up front and Moog K90394 in the rear. The front ones fit in the stock brackets. The rear ones don't, you have to use the brackets that come with the kit. The factory bolts don't have much washer overhang due to the holes being larger on the Moog brackets so I suggest going to Lowe's and buying larger 8mm washers, and also getting longer hardware. I went with M8x1.25 in a 20mm length on the bottom and 25mm length on the top. All in class 10.9 strength hardware.

There's more space up top hence the longer bolt. Start the shorter bottom one first and then get the top longer one started. I used factory hardware on the fronts.

Now onto results... I have a low miles truck still, about 87k miles at the time of the upgrade. The original bushings didn't look too bad, a little worn but nothing crazy. A normal mechanic wouldn't have suggested replacing them. The Moog bushings are supposedly a special blend that makes the material harder but doesn't require grease to prevent squeaking. So far I have no squeaking and my body roll and lean in turns and curves is greatly reduced. It doesn't feel as floaty anymore and certainly handles better.

My mom has an 05 Sport V8 4x4 and hers has always had less body roll and felt tighter in corners with the x-reas than my limited. With these new bushings I would say my Non-Xreas handles pretty close to how a factory x-reas handles with stock bushings. Her T4R is low miles as well and has functioning x-reas as well. It's a big improvement for me in the handling department so I'm happy for the upgrade under $40 total.

Also, the K80820 bushings would have fit the 05 V8 Sport front sway bar, but the rear K90394 bushings would not. The rear was a bigger bar on the 05, probably the 21mm.

I wonder if the different rear bar size is also dependent on x-reas or non x-reas?

 

[Blute]

Anyone find some good rear 21mm bushings that you can use with the stock brackets? Haven't seen any mentioned. I'm not a big fan of the aftermarket brackets; had some break in the past when wheeling.

Just bumping this up again, anyone have input on this question? Thanks!

 

[Blute]

Just to add my data point - similar to Unner in a previous post, I went with the Moog bushings. My V6 Sport has 30mm front and 21mm rear stabilizer bars, so I used Moog #K80820 (front) and #K90396 (rear). The fronts come with the bushings only, while the rears come with a bracket.

I wasn't sure what type of grease to use on these, so I called Moog and they said to use silicone grease on the inside of the bushing (the bar side), so I bought some of the small ES silicone grease tubes from O'Reilly. Used about 1 1/2 tubes total between the front/rear.

I was real worried about the bolts breaking off in the front, so I hit them with PB blaster a few days beforehand and then right before removing. Squirting those front bolts is kind of a pain, because you have to squirt through the hole in the frame and aim the best you can at the bolts. You can kind of feel the front bolt but the rear one is out of reach, so I just did my best. Probably used a lot more PB blaster than I needed and now the vehicle and garage smell like hell, but that should eventually go away. 3 of the front 4 bolts came out just fine, but one was a little troublesome and was real tight when turning, but I took it slow and hit it a few more times with PB blaster during the process, and eventually it came out.

At first, I thought the front bushings might be a little small as they seemed to leave a small gap when placed around the bar, but after tightening up it looked like a good fit. I re-used the original hardware for the fronts and it all worked fine.

On the rears, similar to Unner I used the brackets that came with the kit, as the Moog bushings wouldn't fit correctly in the stock brackets. I also bought some new M8-1.25x20mm bolts with wider flanges because the Moog brackets indeed have a little wider opening and the stock bolts were a little skinny for my liking.

I also replaced the front sway bar end links while I was at it. I was going to go with the Moog ones, but after reading that many folks saw them corrode quickly, decided to try the Mevotech premium ones (#MK90683 left and #MK90677 right); they are supposed to be corrosion-resistant, but we shall see. I didn't replace the rear end links because I might be replacing the shocks/springs in the near future and may want to go with longer links.

I was getting some clunking sounds when going over bumps in the neighborhood at slow speeds, but this seemed to fix that problem. Glad I did the job - cheap, and relatively easy fix.

Pics below.