Ok everyone, here's my situation... I installed my rear sway bar before driving down to Cali and somewhere between the thousand or so miles, I managed to rattle the left bushing loose. Funny, because while installing it I was concerned about the RIGHT side being too loose and it was the left side that came undone. In the process, I dumped the lower rubber piece and matching metal washer somewhere on I-5 South just outside of L.A.

As it is right now, the left side of the sway bar is attached to the perch, and the long bolt will rattle loosely but it doesn't have room to wiggle out. I wanted to remove the whole thing so I don't lose it on my way home, but it looks like it's pretty firmly in place.

My question is if there's any chance that a Home Depot or something similar would have something I could use as a replacement or if I'm gonna be contacting Progress to get the replacement parts. And do you think that the bolt rattling around needs to be fixed before I head back north, or can it wait? Thanks for the input everyone!

 

Well, the reason this happened was because you came to L.A. and didn't visit us :P

As for your situation, I'd just remove the whole thing. So you can't drift on the way back home, no biggy. You'd have to stack a bunch of plumbing washers with a nut if you went to Home Depot (I work at one, and that's the closest thing to bushings we have).

As for long term, if you know the size, many tuning shops can sell you the bushings (I believe they are polyurethane), or RRM can order some for you. Might even be the same part # as the bushings they use for the shifter.

 

The bar is 22mm in diameter right????.......the part #'s for energy suspension would either be 9.5126 or 9.5108 depending on the distance from each of the mount's bolts........here you go energy sus. sway bar bushings

 

Sonantoni, your link is tto the bushings in the perches, but I think he's referring to the endlinks. If I'm wrong, the rest of this comment can be ignored.

This happened to me, although I was able to recollect all the pieces. When I first installed it, I thought it was all too loose too - I just couldn't get the nut on the bolt all the way. It lasted a few weeks for me because I thought I actually overtightened the nut (at least according to the directions. As I recall, they said hand tighten and then 1.5 turns more or something with a wrench. Well, hand tight, I could barely get the thing to thread at all.

So when it fell off, I went to Hopme Depot and bought a new bolt for each side, half an inch longer and reported that here when someone told me what the problem was. Essentially, the best way to put on the sway bar is with the weight of the car on the suspension, because the sway bar will not be in a stressed position. So I looked under the my car after reading this and I found the bolts were loose again, since the weight of the suspension added another couple turns of give to the bolts.

So the lesson I learned anyway is that if you install the sway bar with the wheels off and the back jacked, then as soon as you lower the car again to the ground, the endlinks won't even be hand tight anymore.
-N

 

If you need end link bushings, you could just go to Autozone and they have them there.......only, I think they might only have them in red plus their like 10 bucks for a set which includes 8 bushings and 8 washers(enough for 2 endlinks)

 

Thanks for all the input everyone! You're right Brian, had I hooked up w/ you guys, this would've never happened. I'll swing by Autozone when I get a chance and see about those bushings. I need to get a new headlight bulb too cuz one of my damn bulbs burned out on me! Damn PIAA bulb!!!!

 

ya i put my bar in today and i never jacked the car up at all when i put the lower nuts on the endlinks i couldnt get even one turn.
so i wrenched it a few turns and it was all tight but the threads werent even to the nylon in the nut so i figured it would vibrate out which yours did. so i just kept turning until the threads just came through the nylon ring if thats too tight too bad cause im not backing off so i end up in your position. im going to check it tommorrow after it has had tiome to settle but it seems to work ok.
Too bad i DID NOT get the Perches with my kit like i was supposed to!! im emailing rrm tommorrow!