How the hell does an anti-sway bar break?

[Duck]

2003 Buick Century

I've babied that thing since I bought it in 2004. I drive it like an old geezer.

I don't take corners fast, and if there's a bump I can't avoid, I hit it slow but I let go of the brakes right before impact to take the braking pre-load off the front suspension.

2 weeks ago the car was fine when I took it 40 miles to Romeoville, then up to Lombard then home. Next day I took it into town & before I even got out of the driveway I heard a clunk from the front end, and it does that every time I turn a corner or hit the brakes.

I just now got my lazy ass up & put the car on my homemade hillbilly ramps & got under it to take a look. The anti-sway bar is snapped right at the passenger side end.


I'll probably have to take half the freakin' front end apart just to do it, due to the fact it passes through the car above the A-frame stuff & there isn't room at the ends to pull the thing out from the side.

I've never heard of an anti-sway bar breaking like that unless it's on some kind of 4x4 that somebody's been beating the hell out of.

However I know of a pretty common problem with the second generation Ford Rangers (early 90's body style) that also would be a head-scratcher unless it's been beat on. The rear leaf spring hangars, the part that holds the ends of the leaf springs or shackles and attaches to the frame, .. up here in the rust belt they'll rust away until one day you hit a bump & end up with a leaf spring sticking through the bed floor. The problem there is Chinese steel.

Maybe my anti-sway bar was made in China.

I thought anti-sway bars were supposed to be made out of high grade spring steel or something though.

 

[Duck]

Hmm.... http://www.buickforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=e5c2dd7a51900365a14a2ec13add2958&t=21268

Looks like it's not all that unusual.

The sway bar is HOLLOW??? No wonder it broke. Tubing/pipe is not meant to be bent/springy

 

[hootowlserenade]

When I worked in the pit at a Pennzoil 10 minute oil change (I worked at 4 different locations actually) I always noticed those sway bars always broken, or more commonly the bolt that mounts it to the lower "A" frame was always broken or missing... very common on buicks, but happened a lot on pontiacs too...

Snapped from my Elektrik Polaroid PMID705X

 

[Duck]

Carquest wasn't even able to get them online, but NAPA had one. $115. It'll be there at 8AM tomorrow. I'd be taking the old one out right now but Mrs Duck's been whining all day that she wants me to take her to our little spot next to the creek about 2 miles from here so she can look for clam shells.

 

[Duck]

'bout to do this.

Video is for a minivan but dude says it's pretty much the same.

 

[8978]

I just can't see you driving around in a Century. I'm thinking a beat up Plymouth Super B with the air foil on the back and of course, the gun rack.

 

[Duck]

I just can't see you driving around in a Century. I'm thinking a beat up Plymouth Super B with the air foil on the back and of course, the gun rack.

That will be my next car.

In the morning when the junk yard opens, I'm calling them to come get this piece of shit out of my barn.

 

[8978]

????? I thought you really liked it?

 

[Duck]

????? I thought you really liked it?

I never said I really liked it. It's a decent car. I did say that I baby it, .. I drive it like an old geezer, but that's just because I wanted it to last a long time & not have problems.



The old sway bar came out easily because BOTH ends were broken off. That made it shorter.

The new one won't go in without hitting the sub-frame. I'm not dropping the sub-frame. I could remove the exhaust header pipe and then I wouldn't need to drop the subframe, but I don't mess with exhaust.

I can get it through to the other side but only if the ends are pointed upwards, and the tie rod ends prevent me from rotating it downward.

There's only one nut on the bottom to take the tie rod ends off. But the bolt or stud or whatever the hell the nut is threaded onto just spins & spins & there's nothing to put a wrench on to hold it back. So I can't take the tie rod ends off without an acetylene torch. And I don't feel like buying new tie rod ends just because I had to use the torch to get the old ones off. There's nothing wrong with the tie rod ends, and I don't want to destroy them getting them off because I don't feel like wasting money on a front end alignment. The car doesn't need an alignment. It just needs it's ****ing sway bar replaced.

Why the hell can't I ever do a simple ****ing repair on a car without having to take the whole God-damn thing apart??

Here are pics I swiped from that worthless Buick forum that gives no relevant search results for "tie rod end removal".

That isn't my car, but everything looks the same. Same break on the sway bar end, same tie rod ends.







I have no patience for working on things that are not designed to be worked on.

I should've been an automotive engineer, if for no reason other than so I can find out who the GM engineers are, ... and where they live. I'd publish the list. I'd be the Edward Snowden for auto mechanics. If automotive engineers have to live in fear of their lives with thousands of mechanics who want to kill them, knowing where they live, they'll design these fuggin' things so simple repairs can be done without taking the whole damn car apart.

 

[Tim]

Makes taking tie rod ends off easy.

 

[Duck]

Makes taking tie rod ends off easy.

That would be great, ...... but first you gotta get the damn nut off. The nut won't come off. The whole shaft or bolt spins, and there's nothing to hold it back.

 

[Tim]

That would be great, ...... but first you gotta get the damn nut off. The nut won't come off. The whole shaft or bolt spins, and there's nothing to hold it back.

Thats what the folk rod is for to put upward pressure on the ball to keep it from spinning and at the same time forces it up and out of the spindle.

 

[Duck]

I'm not buying any tools.

The car is retired until it fixes itself then.

The only reason I bought that car was because a cat pissed on the passenger seat in my Ranger & nothing I did would get the smell out. I retired the ranger for 5 years, then one day I noticed the smell was gone.

I think I'll do the same with the Buick. I'll go buy something else & maybe in 5 years I'll go in the barn & happen to notice the tie rod ends came off by themselves.

 

[Tim]

I think I'll do the same with the Buick. I'll go buy something else & maybe in 5 years I'll go in the barn & happen to notice the tie rod ends came off by themselves.

A salt and sulfuric acid mixture will greatly speed that process up.

 

[hootowlserenade]

If you lived closer to my house I'd just let you borrow my pickle fork (that's what that tool is called) or if you feel adventurous autozone will sell you one for like $10-15.... once you get the pickle fork just beat it in there with a sledge hammer and use your impact gun on the nut, it'll come off easier than you think... changed many tie rods, ball joints too... I have both sizes of pickle forks at home.

Sent from the cutting edge of my Droid RAZR MAXX

 

[Duck]

I was wearing one of those headband LED lights so I was able to get some decent pix with my phone.

This is what I was talking about with the sway bar only wanting to go through if the ends were above the tie rods.



I put vise grips on the bottom of that threaded thing on the tie rod end & used a wrench to tighten that nut back up. Didn't take the tie rod ends off.

I decided to go with Plan B, which was to open up a hydraulic can of whoop-ass to force the bastard up over the right side of the sub-frame.

When I tried feeding it through with the ends facing down below the tie rods, it was getting stuck. It could come in contact with the car in 3 places. The left sub-frame, the exhaust header pipe, and then the right end of the bar would hit the side of the right sub-frame. I only needed to force it upwards about 1/4 inch & the damn bar is designed to have forces trying to bend it anyway, ... (oh and I looked at that exhaust header. Ain't no way to get at those clamp bolts without a lift & a long-ass extension. It would require more joints in my arms than I have, in order to bend that way)

So I found a piece of 2x2 & beveled one end to fit in the jack head & used it to lift up on the end of the sway bar.





I didn't take a "before" picture but this is after I forced the end of the sway bar up over the sub-frame. I jacked it up about 3 pumps of the jack, then went around the other side & tapped it with my "frozen trailer brakes" hammer.



A little more tapping with the hammer & I was able to push it the rest of the way through.



I got back under there & looked at the header pipe & it didn't even dent it. Not that I'd give a shit if it did though.

Then it was just a simple matter of bolting the sway bar into place. Gotta have weight on the suspension before tightening down the links though. That was kind of a bitch because the bottoms of the spindles kept slipping on the jack-stands as the suspension was compressing.

 

[Duck]

Then something occurred to me. Take a look at these pics of the old sway bar.









The broken edges are rusted.

That means it's been broken for some time. But the clunking & popping noises from the front end only started a few days ago.

So I was thinking maybe it's a CV joint or something, but nope.

I took it out for a test drive and the first thing I noticed was when I was driving through the grass, when the noise was previously the worst, it's now totally quiet except for my trailer hitch rattling. So I pulled that out & put it in the trunk. Then it was totally quiet.

Out on the road I did some swerving & noticed that not only is the noise gone, it's tight as hell. Doing about 35 mph, aiming for the shoulder then yanking it back towards the other shoulder, the outer corners of the car were probably only dipping about 1/4". It's like a sport-car. An old 80's sportscar, not one of today's sports cars with the low profile tires. I have regular radials on it, and that's the only flexing I could feel in the car.

I took a 35 mph curve at 60 mph & there wasn't much body roll at all. The new aftermarket sway bar is not just solid vs. the hollow OEM bar, it's a slightly larger diameter.

Cool. I can continue driving it like an old geezer now so it'll be a long time before anything else breaks.


I'll have it back in the barn tomorrow though. When I was under there I noticed two screws missing from where a heat shield attaches over the catalytic converter. And the right front tire, which is NOT supposed to have any screws in it, does. I'll have to pull that out & plug it.