1st Gen sway bar question... any ideas?

Hey fellas,

So I recently changed my rack and pinion, tie rods and sway bar end links. I bought new OEM bushings for the sway bar (rubber ones not polyurethane)... applied some grease, cleaned it all up and fastened it on. I could immediately feel the difference , however, a week later the bushings were chewed up. I’ve attached some pictures , if anyone has any idea why this may have occurred, pls let me know your thoughts.

the only thing I can think of is that the sway bar itself needs to go and be swapped because the surfaces of the spots where it meets the bushings are worn out, a bit rusty. I did clean them up before I did the work... but it’s the only thing I can think of now... maybe the end links could be playing a part...

Thanks for any pro tips.

PS - Before I do the re work, I will definitely source some polyurethane bushings so if anyone has a link for a spot to buy those for my taco pls do pass it along.

 

I'll let someone chime in on possibly what happened but I will say, grease is only needed for poly, not rubber.

Poly will spin/turn hence why they need grease, and over time, begin to squeak and squeal until re-lubed again.

Rubber twists in place.

 

Boom. Pro tip out the gate. So maybe the grease combined with rubber and rough surface was the culprit...

thanks for quick response.

 

Did you get the correct size I think there are 3 different sizes .

 

Hey man. Yeah, they came from Toyota with my VIN # as reference, and they fit in snug.

 

Own the Truck from New then??

 

Sorry, don’t follow what you mean. I’m not the first owner, but I suspect those bushings that I took off were from the factory and have been on the truck since it was new.

 

Don't you have to tighten things down with the weight of the truck on it? If the suspension was hanging and you lowered it it would put a pre-twist on the bushings... I could be wrong..wouldn't be the first time, just ask my wife.

 

I had similar rust on the sway bar when i took it out to replace the brackets and bushings. New brackets from the dealer and the poly bushings from rockauto, sort of sanded and painted the sway bar and no problems since. Maybe just toss the polys on there and be done with it.

 

Are you sure you didn't swap them left/right?

 

Petroleum products (grease) are generally bad for rubber unless it says that they're rubber safe or vice versa...but that being said I can't imagine it ruined them that fast...

 

Maybe it's just the pics, but it doesn't really look like the swaybar is sitting flat in the bushings.

Looks like it's shifted to the driver side.

 

@Loia did you take the swaybar out completely and change the bushings or take one side off at a time?

The sway bar is essentially a giant spring. If you take it out completely and don't reinstall it at the same degree, you can "load up" the spring and it'll wear out bushings way faster.

You may need to remove the swaybar end links, then loosen the the mounts and rotate the sway bar down towards the ground

 

I was going for the fact at sometime the sway bar may have been changed I have run across this a few times the parts ordered by the VIN are not the correct ones.

Nothing worse then the Vehicle owner swearing the part is correct when it is way to big to fit.

Best of Luck!!

 

The diameter of a sway bar on a TRD model is 28 mm. On other models it is only 27 mm. At least I think so. I do know that the TRD model sway bar is the larger of the two sizes. You might wanna check.

 

Thanks for the all the feedback guys.

I took the sway bar off completely, changed the end links, and used new bushings.

I’ve ordered some poly ones, and am considering a brand new bar just to not deal with the rust on the current one.

the diameter I’m not quite sure, bought the bushing from Toyota , with the VIN, they gave me these bushings.