I just replaced the sway bar links, lateral links and sublink (it was quite easy). My question is that I just have the nuts tightened hand tight right now. Basically there is no load on the suspension with the car jacked up. Do I need to put the wheels on and lower car to ground for final torque?

 

Yikes! I was hoping to tighten things up after work tonight. No responses. Must be a noobish question?

 

Regardless of vehicle make, I've always tightened the sway bar after the car was on the ground and I have bounced it a few times and rolled it. The lateral links are ball joint end so you can tighten them now. I don't know about the laterals, they look like they are bushed on the end so I might wait till it's on the ground if you can reach them. If you can't then tighten them now.

 

Thanks for the input. I basically did what you said. I lowered the vehicle to load it and then torqued to spec.

What a difference! Car drives much better in rear. It did give the front a loose feel so I'll probably replace the balljoints/links eventhough there is no movement with the wheel check.

 

I'm sure some others may have a different view, but I was shown to tighten rubber bushed components at ride height. Ball type joints, it doesn't matter.