Series 1 front Sway Bar links? EL?

Crazy Dazz · 12-04-2013, 02:21 AM

Did Ford do one of their usual tricks, and use EL sway bars in the series 1, because the new ones weren’t ready?

Every AU1 I have seen has the older style straight links, and they are ALL bent. Series 2 & 3 used the newer style with mini ball-joints.
Unfortunately the old dears at DoT won’t accept that this is normal, they want to see nice straight ones, but nobody sells them for the AU. Everybody advertising AU sway bar links has the series 2/3 links.

I am therefore thinking that these are my best bet:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/FORD-Suit...item1c22500de3
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/FORD-EA-E...item43b6e57a48

They LOOK like the AU1 (except for being new and not bent.)

Has anybody had to replace theirs?

Crazy Dazz · 25-04-2013, 03:43 AM

Anyone?

Seems whatever they changed in the AU causes these suckers to bend at the bottom end, something the old women at DoT take a dim view off.
NOBODY sells them as such, whenever I say “AU” they whip out a pair of ball-joints links from the series 2/3.
So I'm assuming they are in fact the same ones from the E series. Nobody seems to know, so I'm just gonna bite the bullet and buy them.

Naturally the reputation of Whiteline sells me, but their product seems to be a generic threaded rod:
http://www.whiteline.com.au/images/products/W21807S.jpg
This also seems similar to the Nolathane Kit:
http://d3d71ba2asa5oz.cloudfront.net...ages/42170.jpg

However these “el cheapo” ones actually look like the originals:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/290831301192
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/120834756067

I have the torque specs for the links, but in the case of the generic rods, I would only be torquing the nuts against the bushes, whereas on the replica ones the thread is limited.

I don’t know how long it took for the original links to bend, but they are bent on every series 1 I have looked at. I need to get this car license without them bending on the first bump I hit, so cheap ***** may not be the best option.

Has anyone else had to replace theirs?
Or had experience with these cheap parts (“Wasp”)?