Front sway bar

[zainlg]

96 1500 straight axle. I've been having major body roll issues. A previous owner removed the front sway bar. I've been looking for a replacement bar in junk yards and online. the mounts on the axles are different than the 2nd gens I've been seeing at yards. The axle I have has a tower style mount that the links hang from. I found one truck that the bar links mounted the same but after a few weeks the driver side link started rubbing against the tower. Any advice or suggestion for aftermarket FRONT sway bars would be appreciated. The only aftermarket bars I've found are rear sway bars.

 

[Okiespaniel]

Welcome to RF.

You're correct, your truck uses a different style of link than later 2nd gens and I believe the bars are slightly different. Your setup uses doughnut type bushings on each end, much like older cars did.

Can you take some photos of what your issue is? It should be fairly solvable with off the shelf parts.

 

[zainlg]

After a few weeks the link side started to touch the bottom of the tower mount. I also see sway bar links for sale that are straight without the 90Dg

 

[Okiespaniel]

Ok,

You have a problem but it is easily corrected.

Start by centering your sway bar so your links are horizontal.

Get your wrench and sockets out and tighten down the nut on the stud so that your bushings start to compress. There's a hex on the lower part of the stud so you put an open end wrench in there. This will keep the ball socket centered while tightening the nut

There's a difference between smashed and compressed, but you've got a number of turns to go

Hopefully you haven't damaged the threads on the stud.

Notice how compressed the bushings are in the photo. That's what you want to shoot for.