I installed a 1' front sway bar 11 years ago, greased the bushings, but they squeaked anyway. I've taken them out and re-greased them, but after a while the squeak returns.

Doing a 3 point turn in a narrow street involving driveways is the worst. It sounds like there's a gaggle of mice under my hood. Really bad.

Does anyone have a solution? I've tried to find real rubber bushings but couldn't. I don't want to remove the bar because it works so well.

Whatcha think?

CP

 

I installed polyethelene bushings in a 68 F/B I owned many years ago. I had the same problem. It would appear that squeaking is a problem that the manufacturers and advertisers "forget" to mention. The bushings may, in fact last a lot longer, but the aggravation factor is much higher. It got to the point that I sprayed them with silicone (or WD40, I don't remember which right now) every time I took the car to a show or cruise., so I wouldn't have to put up with the teasing I got from my "friends"! LOL.
Needless to say, I wouldn't use them again.
Jay67fast

 

Maybe I don't need to completely replace them. Maybe I cancut away part of the inner circle and line them with real rubber strips that are cemented in. This is just an idea.

I'm bumping this thread to see if anyone has had any real experience fixing this prob. Thanks for the reply, jay. One way or another I'm going to get rid of that damn squeak. My dog thinks there's a friggin' toy in the car somewhere every time I make a turn.

CP

 

I've heard if you wrap the bar with teflon tape where the bushing sits, it will reduce squeeking.

I bought midolene bushings. Stiffer than rubber, but softer than poly-types

 

Hey Carlos.

From what I have been told, grease attracts dust so it is bound to eventually start squeaking. The advice I got before installing a new 1 1/4" sway bar was to coat the insides of the bushings with Anti-Seize. The idea is that the stuff doesnt dry out, and doesnt attract dust. So far I have had no squeaking but I have had the sway bar on there for less than a year. Just my experience.

I know there are others here who have been through this before. Starfury had some good info on the subject when I was going through my sway bar replacement. Once again, I wish we could use the Search function!!!

Good luck!

 

Are you sure it's the sway bar? Generally sway bar bushings don't make that much noise, and I suspect that's why it's hard to find rubber bushings (I don't recall seeing any in catalogs, and we don't offer them here at Napa). I have poly (it's actually polyurethane, not polyethelyne) sway bar bushings and they don't seem to make any noise.

I'd start looking at other common squeak points, like UCA bushings and coil spring insulators.

 

The noise is definitely from the bushings. Had em off and tested.

Polyurathane, thanks Starfury. LOLOL I think polyethelene is a liquid in it¹s natural state.

Baddog, thanks. I will wrap the rod in teflon tape. It¹s got to help.

Bay thanks for the Anti-Seize idea. Your car is the coolest, BTW, but I had to photoshop your window closed because it was buggin me, lol.

CP

 

There was a write up in one the mags a while back about this.
I plan on doing this mod myself.
They drilled a hole through the center of the mount and all the way through the polly.
then threaded in a grease fitting.
Then they used a cutoff wheel and cut a channel for the grease to make it around 360 deg on the bar.
Simple and easy solution ill get some pict of mine when I do it in a few weeks.

 

I had the same issue. I got a blend between polyurathane/rubber. they do not squeek a bit. I believe I got them from mustangsplus

 

Use a proper water proof grease specific for polyurethane bushings. Energy Suspension has it in small squeeze tubes and larger tubes to fit a grease gun. ES also makes sway bar bushings with the grease path groves already molded in. Adding grease fittings to the mount is a great idea.