Advice Needed - Rear Sway Bar Drop Links

[Strugs]

During a rather spirited drive through the mountains a few weeks ago, I noticed a "pop"-ing noise that seemed to be coming from the right rear when I went over bumps while cornering at speed.

I finally got around to jacking the car up today and found this:



The rear drop link's bottom "eye" took a beating somehow and is now more of an oval shape compared to the nearly round shape of the same piece on the driver's side. The bushings also appear to have seen better days.

I am somewhat curious how this could have happened, but I am more interested in how to go about fixing it. It is obvious I need to replace the drop link, but should I also replace the drivers side? I am also curious to know what the consensus is on bushings. Do the replacement parts come with bushings? Are there alternatives to the rubber ones?

Thanks in advance.

[Strugs]

Here is a pic of the drop link from the bottom up. You can clearly see it took a good hit/scrape from something...

[tonythetarga]

I had one rip open and instead of just replacing the broken one, I replaced both of them at the same time. I don't think (IMO) that they can/should be fixed. Putting on new ones isn't that tough and then at least you know what you've got.