Hellwig Front Bushing Replacement

[Going_Going_Gone]

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Maybe you had good luck with Summit Racing, but not me. My order took forever to get shipped; and then, after FedEx had them loaded it in the local delivery truck, the driver determined that the packaging was damaged and the contents had to be shipped back to Summit without contacting me (they are forged steel bars and not packaged in very stout containers and I would have been sure that they'd be fine). I ordered them a couple of months earlier and had worked my way through Summit's waiting list for the bars, and when I called to tell them about the shipping cancellation, they told me that a replacement order had to go to the end of the list. Out of spite, I cancelled the order and bought them from some smaller vendor--and waited a couple more months again.

 

[5280tunage]

Prothane 38mms lasted about the same as the Hellwigs. Going extreme, trying a billet bracket to see if it holds the bushing in a better position to prevent it from getting eaten up so fast. Hotchkis Sport Suspension Heavy-Duty Billet Sway Bar Bushing Brackets 23491500.

Can you provide any feedback on your experience with the Hotchkis setup? My energy suspension bushings are shot again, even with greasable zerks. The sound the sway bar makes when I go over speed bumps for example is wretched. Curious if these did any better since the hotchkis website only claims they provide a visual benefit. One question also, do the hotchkis ones have a split in the bushing for you to install them? the pictures online every where I look make it appear as though they are a solid piece, which would mean you have to remove the end links from the sway bar to slide the busing all the way down, that would be a huge pain. Any noise from yours?

 

[5280tunage]

Just another quick update on this topic. @wakeboarder sent over some stuff showing the new way to wrap things with teflon tape to hopefully help the noise from these bushings. I had whole new energy suspension bushing kit so yesterday I managed to pull everything apart, wrap stuff in teflon tape prior to greasing, and got it back together.

one thing I did notice though, on the energy suspension 1-7/16" kit, the brackets seem to almost be a tad short. in the sense that if you crank them down all the way to the frame mount, everything gets horribly squeezed. I'm partially wondering if this is why they make so much noise over time as well, there's almost too much inward force on the bushings from the brackets, which would create too much resistance for the bar to slightly twist and rotate. I ended up taking the brackets back off, and put a pretty thick grade 8 washer between the frame mount and the bracket, then the bracket, washer and nut. I'm gonna watch this setup but I have a feeling that may help too. It's still plenty tight, but I think that reduced that inward pressure a bit. Only time will tell I suppose.

Thanks @wakeboarder for your suggestions.