Hi,
I noticed that both sway bar bushings at the front of my vehicle were cracked. I bought new ones, but after removing the old ones discovered something strange:

It was impossible to get it the sway bar/stabilizer bar back in the way it was, it had been installed with a tension on it:
The left and right ends were pushing against the wheel mounts. This in most likely also led to the cracking of the frontal bushings.

Connected to this, I had been wondering from the beginning (I acquired the truck this spring) why it was hanging a little lower in the back.
It seems that the vehicle is somehow raised in the front, preventing the sway bar from fitting in properly.


So - my questions are:

1) Is there a simple problem that could lead to the car being raised like that (e.g. wrong or worn shock mounts?) - did the previous owner mod the car? - how can I lower it so that the sway bar will fit in again?

2) How dangerous is it to drive the truck without a sway bar?


BTW- the car is an S10 Blazer 4x4/4.3L from 1991.

 

Most people do a torsion bar crank to lift the front of their truck. Maybe you can do the reverse and lower it some? Search for t-bar crank or torsion bar crank on here and research how to do so while waiting for someone with more knowledge checks in.

 

@red98grandamse
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
There is actually a cornucopia of info on torsion bar lifting/lowering on here!

For example:
https://blazerforum.com/forum/tech-a...r-crank-37078/

I wish I had been more alert to this habit of raising the vehicle front before I handed over the cash. I am not sure how exactly they raised the front, but evidently the previous owner raised it so much that not only the sway bar bushings cracked, but also all CV joints are overstreched (all boots are torn on one side, one is cracked in the middle), and there is oil slowly seeping out of one of the pitman arm sockets at the front of the truck as well - probably due to the extra wear and tear.


But it's good that I am now learning about this, I think I'm on track now to get the truck back to mechanical stability.

 

Hey,
so, thanks to all the wonderful info on this forum, I was able to straighten out my Blazer today and make all the horizontal lines run level again!


Looks a lot more healthy now if you ask me!
It took 4.5 whole turns to the t-bar cranking bolts on each side. Am investigating if it's too low now, it still seemed to change a little when I drove it to the mall tonight.

I also tried to fit the sway bar back in, and the bushings seemed to reach the holes for the bolts definitely a little better now, but it was still not possible to just screw it back in.
Because I really wanted it back in, I ended up applying force to the bar bending it a little while inserting the bolts for the various bushings. That right there was my workout for the day lol
I then let the screws pull the bar into the proper place.

So, the sway bar is back in, but there is again constant tension on it as it seems.
I wonder if that is the way its supposed to be?

Is there something else I'm missing?

(Post t-bar lowering wheel re-alignment is on the list)

 

If the truck is sitting on flat, level ground, there should not be any tension on the sway bar end links. If there is, your sway bar is twisted.

 

The tension btw. is not vertical:
What it seems like is as if the ends of the bar where somehow too far apart on the horizontal plane, so it's not really "twisted":
The bar just gets pulled backwards toward the wheels too much, the frontal bushings have to sustain force to pull it forward.

This was somewhat worse when the distance between the frontal bushings and the ones at the wheels was increased because the wheel mounts were pushed lower by the t-bar cranking.
Now it's better, but there was still about 1 inch of width I had to cover by manual bending when I re-attached the bushings.

I don't think that lowering the car further would fix the problem.
I also don't understand how the bar could have been bent this way - if the cranking would have done something to the bar, my guess is it would have to have exactly the opposite effect, and make the bar move forward too much now that the wheels are lower again.

Maybe the bar that was installed in there when I got the car wasn't the one that this model needs - or something is still messed up with the ride adjustment.

 

I am wondering on my 98 blazer, I was wanting to lift it by adjusting the t-bars but read about your problem, can I lift it this way without adversly affecting my truck and having the issues you have??

Thanks for posting that you may of saved me from having the trouble you are...