Bringing one back from the dead as they say. Well I've been running that Helwig rear sway bar and its worked fine for the last year and more. I scared my brother while corning out of Detroit a year ago while making corners on our exit from a Tiger ball game. He thought sure as hell we were gonna end up with the RAM on its roof. Happy to say that did not happen as the truck corned pretty dam good IMHO. I've got the bar set to the stiffest position (links closest hole to the axle). But...(there's always a but) I did notice something else over time. Over small imperfections in the road surface, like entering a driveway with a slight bump/curb joint type stuff when the suspension is not evenly loaded, I could hear a "thunk" or "clunk" type noise from the rear. During straight running down the road nothing, no noise. , Only when the sway bar might be just coming into load would I hear the noise. Well last week I figured it out. Those beefy Helwig end links that connect the sway bar to the chassis are gone. I replaced them with the OEM factory links...the ones with the heim-jointed type lower ends and the noise has stopped. Although the Helwg links are bushed with a flexible bushing material, I don't think it has enough flex to take the required lateral movement needed to allow the arm to track the rear end, which in the end produces this "thunk" noice as the bar twists. So..out with the aftermarket and back to OEM. Just thought I pass that along.
