Over Tightened Bolts to Stabilizer Bar Endlinks = Early Failure?

[Password]

I keep dragging butt on figuring out what is making all my undercarriage noise. The sound sounds like it could be the body bushings, the sounds like it comes right at the foot wells and it sounds the same if I'm in the driver side or passenger side. I can hear it only at low speeds, going over bumps or rough driving surface or even turning the steering wheel left to right while slowly moving forward. T
he main culprits are the body bushings (I replaced twice, but did not grease them both times, took the 2nd set out and then greased them after a few weeks) and the bar end links (again, changed twice already, 1st set was Moog, 2nd was Motorcraft). I have an appointment setup for Monday to have a shop look over the front end, because I think maybe it's the ball joints. The 2nd round of bushings install I torqued to the spec in the repair CD I have (I think 60-65 ft-lbs) but the end links I think I went balls to the wall and tightened them as much as I could. Is it a possibility that I over stressed the joints in the links and now they are bad again? I have a 3rd set of Motorcraft end links that I can install and I'm probably past the return period anyway.

 

[Adieu]

Sway links are sorta up there in the "pleasant but ultimately unnecessary" category

Offroaders disconnect them. Used car drivers "have" them, but they're usually so trashed they might as well be soggy cardboard and ain't actually DOING anything.... etc.

So don't overtighten that stuff. It won't do any good.

 

[Hamfisted]

How many miles on the Expy ? Did you say earlier you already replaced the lower ball joints ? When you pulled off the original body bushings were they destroyed ? Or in relatively good shape? I was just wondering, because mine look new and they're original with over 200k miles on them.

 

[Password]

Expy has 166k miles, ball joints are original. The original bushings looked fine to me, they weren't torn up at all.

 

[Password]

$450.00 lighter with new lower ball joints....still makes the noise but it's not as sensitive. Makes me think it's the shocks now. I ordered a auto stethoscope to see if i can pinpoint it this time. You can hear it if I rock the truck side to side. I install Monroe Quick Struts back in 2017.