I think you're right. that'* the correct number for the replacement bar but it just doesn't seem right. At best I have less than a half inch clearance. I was hoping some one would look at the pictures of the bar and ask how it got bent... I can get a new one from Rockauto for around $85 the only problem, it'* the same part, needless to say I'm a little gun shy about buying it. I have too much in the car to stop now so payday I'm going to order it. Maybe the lottery gods will smile on me...


Stay tuned...

The pick and pulls here are $27 for a factory sold one with no rust one from TEXAS
maybe even less from other yards
And you know those would be made correct
its not like they wear out
Would you want us to look for one for you?
I don't think shipping would be to much

I really appreciate the offer. I decided not to buy another new one, since everything is made in China today, it could be coming from the same place. I found a yard around 50 miles from home that has a few around $45. I’m like you, I never saw one wear out. When I first crawled under the car,everything had the same amount of rust for PA, except for that sway bar. It looked way too new to me. The left control arm had a small hole rusted in it, that’* why I decided to change everything under there, including springs. Something was done but I don’t know why or when. The old lady that had it was in her 80’* so she probably bought it and never notice the problem.

I hitchhiked through a lot of Texas back in the late ‘60’* and I remember most of the people there as willing to help a person out, but you could tell they didn’t take any BS either. Good people! I really appreciate the help trying to figure this out. I’ll get the new bar on Saturday and see what it does.

Here is a video that might help
I KNOW you know what your doing it just shows the bend in the bar and some other things

I don’t know if I saw that one but I did look at a bunch trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. I’m going to take some pictures of both bars when I get the one from Carlisle tomorrow, hopefully I’ll see some differences. I’m really getting tired of crawling under that thing…

So I was going to let you know what was going on but among the other problems, my motherboard decided to fry itself. In the last chapter in this never ending saga I was going to pick up a junk yard sway bar in Carlisle. As I was about a half mile from home, I felt a loud rapping coming from under the truck. It seems the center u-joint in my 2007 F150 decided it had enough. I limped the truck back home and found out that Ford, in their wisdom had decided that instead of replacing a $20 u-joint that I needed to replace the whole driveshaft, at well over $1000. So now I have the Ford that won’t move, the Buick with the sway bar out and the only transportation is either my backhoe or garden tractor. I decided this wasn’t a good day to play the lottery and about that time my computer decided to commit suicide. I had to rent a car, have a machine shop build me a driveshaft, and build a new computer. It probably would have been cheaper to let hackers steal my bank info. Anyway back to the Buick.


I finally got to the junk yard and of course the bar was gone and he didn’t have any others that were any good. I called a few other yards and got the same results, PA winters are rough on parts. I went to Advance auto and was going to buy another bar and when we compared it to the one I had, there was no difference. The parts guy told me they were labeled wrong. The part that says “Driver Side Down” actually should go on the passenger side and up. I put the bar on again like that and all of a sudden there is clearance. Whoever put the replacement bar on probably looked at the label and put it on the way it said. I can still feel an occasional drag when turning the wheel to the right, I will end up rebuilding the rack before it’* over. Now on to the next problem, the AC ain’t working and summer is here. Again I appreciate all the help.


tldr: It'* fixed.

I did notice on ebay and rock auto you could a drive shaft for $300-$500 range
I hope your drive shaft shop was not over $250

For mine Rockauto wanted around $550 with shipping and I found a local machine shop that did it for $602 out the door and had it done the next day. This one can be fixed too. At least I got a new computer put together.

I am curious what ford did on these so I am thinking a 2 piece drive shaft with a carrier bearing then splines on the front half then a yoke that goes in to the splines and 2 more u joints would be the normal.
Did they make some crazy assembly with non replacement u joints and carrier bearing ?

That'* exactly what they did. When I crawled under it I couldn't believe it. That should have been a $20 part. I checked the local junk yards but they were around $400 and I would have probably got one that was not much better than I had.