I have washers on mine, but my endlinks are homemade. Certainly not a bad idea.

 

@gerikivan is correct. You have to have the car's weight fully on the tires in order to take out any preload.

I'll have to look. If OEM had a lock washer, I would have added one, too. I'll go out and take a peek for ya, today. I'll get a picture of everything to see if there's a difference between ours.

 

Aw ****, can't believe I've been doing that wrong this whole time. Welp you live you learn. Weird thing is, I've installed sways on several cars unloaded and never had issues, although I can see why that would cause the endlinks to be extended further than necessary. I'll give it a shot and see if my clunking goes away. I'm glad this thread exists as I have not been able to chase down this noise. It sounds like a balljoint, but it's not and it's super ****ing annoying lol!
I have a feeling we have similar issues as all suspension components feel solid with no play.

 

oem i think uses flare nuts.

 

I don't know the math behind it, but since installing my coilovers, even with the wheels off the ground, there is very little preload, if any. I'm pretty sure, when I had different coilovers, there was quite a bit more. In the rear, anyway. It's been a while, so my memory is kinda fuzzy. So, if yours are similar, it may be okay. For a long time, I didn't think to have the car weighted to tighten suspension bushings. Then, while laying in bed one night, I was like. "Well, crap". Meh, we live and learn.

 

I did use lock washers. Also, my bolts seem to fit. Not sure if I measured my own or used the how-to to pick sizes.

 

did you do the fronts too? I've been working on it but it seems like the ball joint barely has the articulation that the WL one did..

 

I did the fronts, yep. They lined up no problem. I haven't noticed any problems with operation, though. I'm on a stock sway bar, if that makes a difference.

 

almost feel like the part number/part changed.. just seems off in the front

 

Yours is threaded out more than mine for some reason. Mine is all they way down. Luckily it didn't need to go in any more. Are you thinking the angle coming off the bolt is too steep?

 

yeah and the angle isn't quite right it's like i need the top of the end link to be further back. double checked the part number should be right

 

got the endlinks on but haven't had a chance to drive the car, doing a couple other things with it before it's off the stands

 

test drove - clunking gone, woot.

 

Because I'm too lazy to scroll with my phone : The problem ended up being bad end links?

 

idk if they were bad per se but they're not clunking on these custom ones