Took the TJ to my mechanic this week for its annual inspection & he pointed out that my rear sway bar links & bushings were shot, there was a
ton of play going on. I had noticed this before but always ignored it, these bushings are probably the last part of the suspension that remained from the prior owner if not the factory.
Picked up everything from Rock Auto, $48.00; ordered it Tuesday & it arrived Thursday, love that place:
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Friday rolled around & I got a call from the boy requesting some homemade pizza so I busted out of work around 1pm to make some dough. So here are the random TJ unrelated shots of a caramelized onion with sage & goat cheese pizza (daughter’s request) & a standard pepperoni (son’s request), also made a Hawaiian for the son’s girlfriend but it wasn’t very photogenic. Almost never see both kids at home at the same time, that was really cool:
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Saturday morning & time to "pop in the new parts". This started off as another “easy 30 minute job” that turned into a complete pain in the balls, there are a total of 8 bolts that have to be removed to pull the links & bushings out, 7 of which of course came out without an issue while 1 snapped the bolt head off leaving the rest of it completely intact. There is zero room to work the other end sticking out of the nut that’s welded to the mount so rather than making some lame attempt at getting this thing out (been there done that & it aint worth the agg), I tapped out & drove it over to my mechanic’s house & he coaxed it out.
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Since I couldn’t finish right away I took the opportunity to clean up & paint the bar & the bushing brackets.
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a couple hours later I Ubered over & picked up the rig, sans stuck bolt. One thing I noticed driving it there & back without the rear sway bar, I noticed zero difference. Wasn't sure if it was because the one on there was useless due to the worn bushings or they're just not all that useful. Anyway, I left it until this morning allowing the painted parts to dry. Went out about an hour ago & reassembled everything, new stock length links/bushings and new axle mount bushings:
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Took it out for a test drive, felt great, maybe tighter in the rear, took some corners at speed & everything feels great; not sure if it's all in my head but it does feel tighter overall. This vehicle surprises me the longer I own it, it handles amazingly well. Maybe my expectations are low, I don't know, but I push it more & more the longer I drive it & it never gives me the feeling like it's going to let go. While I don't push it through turns as I do my Subaru I've gotta say it's not all that far off.