Rear sway bar nut missing!? (Discovered when inspecting brakes)

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by Walt Fricke

This is just a garden variety WeltMeister or the like aftermarket sway bar link setup. You only need a nut and washer, which you can get from any decent hardware store, though I forget what the thread is - might be SAE and not metric because these are made in the US.

With the car on the ground, and preferably someone in the driver's seat (though usually this is skipped), you adjust the links so that there is no force on the sway bar. Doesn't matter much which side you adjust, though keeping things sort of symmetrical is good practice. When you can grab the link with your fingers and rotate it easily, that's where you want to be.

These adjusters are eccentric, which is how they shove the banana arm back and forth for toe, and up and down for camber. When aligning things, it makes sense to lock them down, but that's so that things are where they are supposed to be when you tighten the two bolts at the far rear of the spring plate. If those aren't tight enough, the toe adjuster isn't going to keep the toe where it should be all by itself, and as you will see if you remove it, it doesn't act as a clamp. You want it tight so it doesn't wiggle around, and so the sway bar adjuster works as it should without there being a sort of dead band where the chassis leans but the sway bar isn't being twisted until it leans farther.

gotta love walt summing up what took me 4 or 5 posts to dispense...

[Rawknees'Turbo]

Originally Posted by juanbenae

gotta love walt summing up what took me 4 or 5 posts to dispense...

That's because cavemen need more posts to get their thoughts across, Toby!!!