Sway Bar Install,new clunk from rear

If I remember correctly the instructions didn’t specify but I figured the extra washers were for people without a trailer hitch. Either way it doesn’t look like they would really hurt anything. It was just something I noticed.

 

Well, I've spent my lunch hour troubleshooting.

First, I removed the extra washer from the end links and retorted. Took a drive, no fix.

Second, I flipped the u-bolts to go under the axle AND I fished out the packet of grease and squeezed any bit of remaining grease into the bushing on the sway bar itself. Took it for a drive, fixed it! I can't say for certain if it was moving the sway bar or adding extra grease to the bushings, but I'm pretty confident in saying it was moving the sway bar lower. I think @Rex Kramer hit the nail on the head when he said it was forcing the end links to bind.

So, to recap, I have no idea why putting the sway bar on the side of the axle works for some people and didn't work for me, but it didn't. I'm not going to worry about it. I moved it underneath and I have the results I want.

Thank you to everyone who troubleshooted/troubleshot (I don't know which is correct, I'm no grammarologist) with me.

 

Sweet glad that worked for you, I'm curious to see if it continues to be quite. That's exactly how mine was installed and it made the noise sounding like a 22 gun shot.

Fingers crossed for you, can you give us an update on a week or so? I find out my new springs are arriving tomorrow so I'll be back at mine this weekend.

 

I certainly will.

 

1 week-ish update.

Still works great, no noise at all.

 

So the IT guy in me would say put it back the way it was and see if it does it again. See if you can recreate the issue.

 

Just a note - I recently installed my rear sway bar and the current instructions seem to have changed regarding the inside washer on the sway bar and endlink connection. Older versions did not have you install a washer there but the newer versions did. I put one on mine and all seems to be fine.

 

As long as the washer is sitting flat I don’t imagine it could ever be an issue.

 

omg... I am so glad that I found this thread....

I installed the trd sway bar a few years ago and, earlier this year, I installed the +2 coachbuilder shackles. For 6 months, there was no noise from any of the suspension components, but, recently, I started to get a loud popping and clunking noise coming from the rear end. I tried jumping up and down in the bed of the truck to reproduce the issue, but there wasn't a peep when I did that. Driving on flat road, or the highway, or city streets, and at all speeds, there was not a sound from the read end. However, when I pulled into my driveway... BAMB!, POP! So, I discovered that this is happening only at low speeds and only when the weight of the truck shifts from side to side; like when I enter my driveway at an angle.

I then found this thread and the descriptions here sound like what I was experiencing. I decided to disconnect the links from the sway bar to see if that noise was coming from the sway bar, the links, bushings, etc. So, I grabbed my wrench and socket and proceeded to crawl under my truck. Well... it turned out that the nuts weren't even tight; not even finger tight. they just rolled right off the bolts... both sides! wtf!? So I torqued them down to 50 ft/lbs and now the rear end is totally silent. I know I tightened these bolt down after I installed the shackles. It is crazy that they loosened that much in such a short time. Anyway, This thread saved me a ton of time and worry. I wish that all solutions for truck issues were this easy

I guess if the nuts come loose again, I could use some thread lock on them.