1957 Sway Bar Bushing Question

[Bob B.]

Hi all,

Attached is a pic of the 1957 sway bar bracket bushing I recently got. I am told that this will conform to the bracket when it is torqued down. Maybe I just don't have enough faith, but it looks to me that all I would do is bend my bracket, crush the bushing or both. Is this correct? My bar is 11/16.

Thanks,

Bob

[Dan P.]

Re: 1957 Sway Bar Bushing Question

Your fine . The bracket will not bend. It needs to crush the bushing a little to hold it in place.So there is NO play .

[John H.]

Re: 1957 Sway Bar Bushing Question

Your fine . The bracket will not bend. It needs to crush the bushing a little to hold it in place.So there is NO play .

Also, the design intent is for the assembly to have NO relative motion between the O.D. of the bar and the I.D. of the hole in the bushing; all movement is done in the compressed rubber bushing, so there's NO lubrication required. The plant had an air-operated overhead compression device that held the bracket against the frame while the bolts were installed. Without it, you usually have to use a pair of longer bolts to pull the bracket down, then replace them one at a time with the shorter correct length bolts. The plant device also compressed the front suspension to design ride height while the link bolts and their bushings were installed so there was no preload from the sway bar.