Installing sway bar end links

Hi, all. Have had a clunk, creak, for a bit now, and now a full blown squeak (as of a couple of weeks ago). Crawled underneath and saw that my end links were pretty chewed up. As in fully torn open.

I bought some new links. I read in another thread that I can accomplish this swap without jacking the truck off the ground/removing tires, etc. Is this the case? Some people seemed to disagree. I'm a small guy and there seems to be plenty of room to work. Just don't want to run into any potential issues aligning the new ones once the old ones are off. Thanks.

 

It's a Lot easier if you do jack it up and remove the wheels, gives you way more room to get to the end links, just be sure to use jack stands.

 

You will at least need a jack just incase the link doesn’t line up you can jack it up a little bit to get them to go in the correct position.

 

If you jack it up, jack up both sides equally so that there is no load on the sway bar.

 

Thanks, all! Going to try to knock it out soon (we're under softball sized hail and a 7 out of 10 tornado watch right now). Hopefully I even have a truck tomorrow

 

I had a squeak in mine and it turned out to be the passenger side upper ball joint needed to have some grease pumped into it. But yea I would jack it up like everyone is saying may need to use the jack under the each lower swing arm to reconnect the lower link to get it to line up when re installing.

 

Thanks, I decided just to pay someone to do the links (it's actually at the shop as I type). If that doesn't fix it, the uppers are definitely next on the list. I'd been meaning to upgrade from SPCs old style uppers to the new ones with the grease fitting anyway.

 

Welp, wasn't the end links. Going to grab a grease needle and pump some grease into the uppers to see if that is the issue.

 

From when I did my upper ball joints that bolt is a pita to get out removing a wiring harness clip to get it out the way and bending some sheet metal inside the finder well to get that bolt out if I’m not mistaken it’s about 15” long and has to come out thru the engine bay.

 

Yeah, I remember that being a major pain when I first installed the SPCs. Had to bring out the mallet to bang away at a bunch of sheet metal in the engine bay. I'm almost positive I reinstalled them upside down to make it easier in the future, but I'll have to double-check as that was almost 8 years ago

 

Yea I’m fighting my own demons rightnow on my 06 trying to find a noise I can’t pinpoint after replacing all kinds of stuff. So me and my truck have a date Friday.

 

Good luck with your noise hunt! Pumped a bunch of grease into my uppers and the noise didn't change at all, so I'm on to the next thing now

 

Yea I’m gonna try to loosen the lowers and re torque before i jack anything up and start looking again.

 

I found mine. The sway bar bushings were in backwards and the noise is gone the slot has to face the front greased up with some red and tacky and the sound is gone for now.

 

That's going to be my next move. Hopefully that fixes it, because I'm tired of spending time and money looking for this squeak.

 

Any luck? In my own war right now.....

 

Still got the squeak. Ended up just paying a shop to do my sway bar end links. No change in the squeak. Going to do my sway bar bushings next. I washed my truck a few days ago and it was actually quiet for a day, so I'm now starting to think it is a bushing issue. Water got in there and silenced the issue until it dried out again. (hopefully, because I really don't want to mess with ball joints right now)

 

Get a jar of this stuff.. resists water well

Energy Suspension 9.11104 8 Oz Tub Of Lubricant

$18 Energy Suspension - 9.11104 8 OZ TUB OF FORMULA 5 PRELUBE

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MW5SJ4?_encoding=UTF8

 

btw, have done it all on mine.. links, ends, sway bar bushings, and now LCA’s.. clunk is still there. Starting to think it’s my coilovers with 80k on them.

 

Thanks! Just ordered this along with some new Energy Suspension poly bushings.