Front Stabilizer Questions

[hssnpny]

So I'm under the car and notice one of the front stabilizer frame rail bolts is missing and that side of the bracket is pulling away from the rail by about 1.5 inches.

Anyone know if that is just a bolt or did something shear off? My shop manual doesn't call out what it is. If it's a bolt looks like fun trying to get it down the rail and to drop thru the hole.

And is there a way to make the stabilizer move so that the bracket goes back flush with the rail? Pushing by hand it doesn't budge. Maybe a floor jack under the lower arm?

Thanks for any info - don't know front ends at all if ya couldn't tell.

 

[Adam95GT]

So I'm under the car and notice one of the front stabilizer frame rail bolts is missing and that side of the bracket is pulling away from the rail by about 1.5 inches.

Anyone know if that is just a bolt or did something shear off? My shop manual doesn't call out what it is. If it's a bolt looks like fun trying to get it down the rail and to drop thru the hole.

And is there a way to make the stabilizer move so that the bracket goes back flush with the rail? Pushing by hand it doesn't budge. Maybe a floor jack under the lower arm?

Thanks for any info - don't know front ends at all if ya couldn't tell.

If you mean the bushings on the sway bar...

Its a stud with a nut:

Have fun fishing that through the rail... If you have a welder i would probably just open it up and weld a bolt in there...

There might be an easier way... Mechanics wire is your friend.

 

[hssnpny]

Ha, yep, that's the culprit . . . nice pic.

Won't be as bad as I thought to fix. Took the other nut off and the brackets. Turns out the hole in the rail is slotted with a retaining clip to hold the bolt. Given that, the bolt should still be hanging there since the clip didn't fall out. So maybe it did snap. The bracket has pulled away from the rail simply cuz it bent without both bolts to hold everything in place. I ordered my new bolt and nut from ford this morning. Of course I had to order a 4 pack of bolts at $5 ea.

What I'm trying to find out about now is the spacer that is on all the remaining 3 bolts (both rails). It sits right up against the rail, between the rail and the bracket, and clearly isn't in Adam95's pic. It wasn't in the ford parts diagram. Maybe it's aftermarket. It's aluminum, 1-1/4" diameter, 1/4" thick. No idea where to find another one. Anyone know?

 

[hssnpny]

Here's a pic of the other side which is still together, showing one of the spacers installed.

Anyone know why they're there? What they do? Were they part of some kit?

Anyone know where to get another one? I've looked around on the internet and no luck. Dimensions are 1-1/4" diameter, 1/4" thick.

At this rate it's just easier to leave all the spacers out if I don't know the benefit of leaving them in.

 

[chaos254]

I just replaced the swaybar bushings on my car and there definitely was not an aluminum spacer like in your pictures. Mine looks like the one in adam's pic.

 

[mavisky]

Just replaced my swaybars with Eibach bars and there were no spacers from the factory, nor were there any in the Eibach kit.