I’m thinking of upgrading my factory sway bar bushings with Energy Suspension et al urethane stuff. Always wanted to do it on past vehicles but never have.
Has anybody noticed an improvement with this upgrade?
(Also looking to see if a 2500 (3/4 ton) bar will swap into my 1500 Sierra but that’s another story)
For a truck you will not see any real improvement. You will also have to lube them every now and then especially if you live in the north.
If you want better roll bar performance get a better roll bar.
If you do it, wrap the bar in teflon tape where it touches the bushings to reduce squeaking. It'll make very little to no difference in handling, the big difference will be in longevity. A bigger sway bar will make a much bigger handling difference.
Vigo
UltimaDork
5/15/19 8:56 a.m.
To be honest I've never felt a significant difference after installing poly sway bar bushings. Well, I can say one thing I have noticed is they don't rot when your E36 M3ty steering box leaks onto them constantly.
Honestly the only time I've noticed a difference is when the old bushings were already worn out.
I have to say that I did see a small difference but this was on a Fox Mustang and not a truck. I replaced the front sway bar bushings with poly and noticed slightly less roll and what roll I saw was came on slower as the poly deformed less since it required more force to deform a given amount.
I can’t get to the bottom of whether A) a 2500 sway is a larger diameter than a 1500 and B) will is swap over if it is larger.
Multiple searches leaves me with more questions than answers.
A couple years ago I did poly bushings......but it wasn’t just sway bar it was all (ALL) the suspension bushings on my NA answer. It made a difference but by that point the car was fairly miserable to drive anyway.
A new set of rubber sway bushings can make a world of difference and usually dont have the drawbacks of a poly bushing.
Also, if you look at Rock Auto there are two different sway bar diameters for the 1500 series of Chevy/GMC's. One 34mm and one 36mm. If you measure your bar and find its the 34mm you could probably search the junkyards for a 36mm and pick up one for cheap and swap it in.
I put delrin bushings in my track use Porsche 924s and it did improve the turn in a little bit after a couple laps I had adjusted to it. The down side was they would shatter if you hit potholes or dropped a tire off the track or you got in to the “turtle” curbs. A arm bushings were the worst for this. I eventually went to solid metal mounts for the sway bars that I machined a circumferential grove in to the mount half’s and then drilled and taped a grease fitting in to. The bar was then held in place with hose clamps to prevent side slip. I would then just grease them before each track weekend.