bent swaybar causing bad alignment? Damon?
 

My sway bar appears to have gotten bent somehow. On the right wheel, its rubbing up against another piece. Sorry for my ignorance, but don't know what it's called. Pictures below..

The car has been pulling to the right and had inside tire wear on driver's rear tire. Replaced the tire and got an alignment yesterday, but it's still pulling to the right. Would this cause it? Wanna have an idea before I take the car back to Firestone to get them to re-align it.


I put the car up last night and unbolted the 4 bolts for the sway bar, but couldn't bend anything to get it in the correct position like the left side is. Hard to explain, the pictures explain it much better.

Would replacing the swaybar be the only fix?

http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/77541...HD7u_AQr8Le.I6

http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/77541...BE7u_Arrm9U9Mt

If pictures don't work, go to http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/cavellm@sbcglobal.net

And the pictures are in the "test" folder on the 2nd page.

ouch thats bad. the swaybar is probably fine, its usally the mounts that bend. looks like you might need new endlinks as well. you wont be able to fix this without replacing the mounts, and certainly not by trying to bend it by hand. but to answer your question, the swaybar does not affect the alignment.

There are bushings (Ring clamps on aftermarket bars) that prevent the sway bar from shifting side to side in the mounts. Looks to me like the bar has merely shifted to one side. What do your bushings look like? And I believe yes this could cause handling issues and unever tire wear if the sway bar is binding up during cornering/turning.
HTH
Crispy

Your sway bar mounts are bent. The sway bar itself does not cause a bad alignment, but with the mounts bent the drop link is binding the suspension and causing the bar to preload the hell out of one side of the car. This is what is causing your car to pull to one side.

The alignment may be "true" but the swaybar is forcing more weight through one side of the car even when at rest, so the car is pulling to one side. Replace the mounts and inspect the drop links, they may be ruined too.

I know how it can be; been there, done that.

And whoever did the alignment looks like they used vise grips on the tie rod end lock nuts; go yell at them.

Nah, his mounts are bent back towards the rear of the car from catching them on something. See how the droplinks are angled way back; binding and rubbing on the a-arm?

Damnit, this looks to be more expensive than I thought it would.

Guess I should get all of this done before I take it back to 'em.

Thanks guys!

Should I try to get upgraded ones if $$$ can be found?

Upgraded mounts would be better, but stock ones will work in fixing your trouble.

If they were bent already at the autox last weekend the car would have turned better in one direction than the other. Did you happen to notice that being the case?

Yeah. It's been a lot easier in making right turns than left. Less force on the steering wheel required.

The alignment thing has been going on for a couple months now, I just got around to attempting to get it fixed.

I think when I ran over a pretty large chunk of tire on 75 one night is when this happened.

So the drop links are the pieces that have the O's on the ends of them. Are you talking about the mounts that have the 2 bolts in them where you take the sway bar off, or something else?

Yes. Those are the parts that connect between the a-arm and the sway bar. They have bushings inside them where they connect that may be harmed.


Yes. The mounts themselves are where the "straps" bolt that hold the sway bar in place. The sway bar bolts to the mounts and the mounts bolt to the underside of the frame rails. The lower radiator supports are also part of the sway bar mounts.

See the pics in the link I posted.

Found the mounts from Malloy for $32.46 each.

The end links are $58.26 each.

:( Not too bad, but didn't wanna be spending extra money on the car at the moment.

OK, got more information.

Didn't think it was pertinent at the time, but somebody informed me it probably is.

The car does pull to the right, BUT, it pulls harder to the right when I hit the gas hard.

And when I let off the gas while the car is still in gear, or I downshift, it pulls to the left. Then kinda evens out while cruising.

So something is wrong with the rear suspension too it sounds like? Hopefully I'll get time tomorrow to jack it up and take a look at the rear end, see if I see anything apparent.

Anyone?

Before you go on any wild goose chases just fix what you know is wrong first: the sway bar mounts and possibly the endlinks. Wouldn't hurt to check the alignment once more either.

If you still have issues after that you can go looking other places...

Wow, this was a while ago.. Hadn't researched this more until recently when I got some free time.

Back in Dec, I replaced the mounts, but no dice. I couldn't get the endlinks off of the car to replace them.

I took my sway bar off today and drove the car, still pulling to the right if I have my steering wheel completely straight. Left the endlinks on, but just removed the sway bar.

I'll see about getting another alignment done this week with the swaybar off, to see if that makes any difference at all. Then go from there...

I bent a swaybar mount in an off-track excursion at the track one day, but didn't realize it until I got home. I did one session after the incident, and the car did not feel right at all, so I packed it up and went home. A bent mount will definitely mess up the handling.

-Max

Good idea. It's not the swaybar then.

Are you certain that all the bushings are sound? This could be a case where you put the car on a rack and align it but then under load things deflect and the car goes wonky.

Is it the front or the rear that's pulling? Usually if it's the rear pulling you have to steer into it so to speak but the steering doesn't get heavy. If it's the front pulling you have to steer away from the pull and the steering is heavier because of this.

Then I'd say it's the front. I feel like my arm is tired after a long drive from holding the steering wheel straight and to the left a little bit.

Then if I want to change lanes, usually I'll just let go of the steering wheel to go right, but its quite a bit harder to go left.

You think it still may be the swaybar if the alignment was done with the bent mount/endlink, and even though its off the alignment is still causing it to pull to the right since it was compensating for the bent stuff?

I'm not sure how to check the bushings, or even what bushings to check.

Spoke with a guy at Midas. He says it wouldn't be a good idea to get an alignment with the swaybar off, because it'll affect the ride height, and alignment once I put it back on.

I'm gonna see if I can drop it off Thurs. or something to have them take a look to check for any other bent parts. Guess the inspection is free, and if its more than they do there, refer the person to a frame and body shop to do more exact measurements on the suspension.

id hate to bring back a thread from the dead but what ended up being the solution/problem?