22mm SuperPro Rear Sway Bar - The Conservative Approach

[Mr. Conundrum]

There is a flat on the end link that you need to hold while you tighten the nut. It requires a thin, open-end wrench- 14mm I think. I purchased a set of inexpensive metric thin Capri wrenches from Amazon that work nicely. A standard-thickness wrench will not work.

Oh... Ok. I didn't notice it had a flat; it looked round to me. Thanks

 

[kep]

Thanks for the suggestions. Maybe I'm obtuse here, but when I installed the endlinks on the bar outside car, once the nut reached a certain point it would just spin the assembly and I wasn't able to get it to 25ft-lbs. Unless I'm supposed to remove the boot off the ball joint, I didn't see anything to hold to torque against.

I'll try to torque it with the endlinks installed first. If there really isn't enough room.... (Sigh) I'm going to have to try to get those endlinks out of the arms and they are *wedged* in there. It's going to really suck.

On the moog end links you can hold the shaft with narrow vice grips. On OE links, you insert a triple square. I had enough room to torque them while installed on my car using vice grips and a crescent wrench

 

[SouthFL_Mk7.5]

On my install, with the car on jack stands, I used the hydraulic Jack to lift up each wheel/tire until the endlink holes lined up to pass the bolt through.

And yes, those endlinks get maxxed out to the point of some bushing distortion (at the control arm) when installed. They do look like they are at the extreme of their range of articulation.

 

[Mr. Conundrum]

On my install, with the car on jack stands, I used the hydraulic Jack to lift up each wheel/tire until the endlink holes lined up to pass the bolt through.

And yes, those endlinks get maxxed out to the point of some bushing distortion (at the control arm) when installed. They do look like they are at the extreme of their range of articulation.

I did the same. It wasn't an alignment issue so much as the endlinks seeming too wide for the control arm. I had to grease the crap out of them and then basically hang on them to get them to slot down into the arm.

Later this week I'm going to get under there again and see if I can torque the nut between the endlink and the bar.

 

[Mr. Conundrum]

Today I got under there, and, sure enough, there wasn't enough room to get my torque wrench on the endlink because of the spring. So I just torqued each side to "German Spec" using a box end wrench. I estimate both sides are between 25-30ft/lbs. After a 15 min drive, there were no popping sounds from the rear and it felt noticably tauter back there.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

 

[theDoktor]

On the moog end links you can hold the shaft with narrow vice grips. On OE links, you insert a triple square. I had enough room to torque them while installed on my car using vice grips and a crescent wrench

You are correct on the use of a triple square for loosening or tightening the OEM end link nut. On the Moog endlink, you need a thin open-end wrench to keep the ball joint shaft from rotating. A standard thickness wrench will not work. I do not recommend the use of any type of vise-grip or crescent wrench unless you are planning to replace the item you are removing. The use of these tools (vise-grips &/or crescent wrenches) for this work WILL destroy the item they are applied to based on my many decades of experience and will not achieve a repeatable or defined torque value.

This is NOT how one torques a fastener. If you deem my statement incorrect, please school us on how a specific and repeatable torque value is achieved using these tools. I believe the ephemism for using these particular tools for this application could be a variant of what has been called "Southern Engineering".

 

[00Zero]

You are correct on the use of a triple square for loosening or tightening the OEM end link nut. On the Moog endlink, you need a thin open-end wrench to keep the ball joint shaft from rotating. A standard thickness wrench will not work. I do not recommend the use of any type of vise-grip or crescent wrench unless you are planning to replace the item you are removing. The use of these tools (vise-grips &/or crescent wrenches) for this work WILL destroy the item they are applied to based on my many decades of experience and will not achieve a repeatable or defined torque value.

This is NOT how one torques a fastener. If you deem my statement incorrect, please school us on how a specific and repeatable torque value is achieved using these tools. I believe the ephemism for using these particular tools for this application could be a variant of what has been called "Southern Engineering".

I keep a set of the double ended cone wrenches just for sway bar endlinks like the moogs. They come in handy other times as well and can be had pretty cheap

https://www.parktool.com/category/hub-axle

On my moogs I ended up with some blue thread locker on them after too may times having to re-tighten.