rnsand6kds

Those part numbers were from the Universal listing from Energy Suspension. I have not installed them yet and have a Daizen Sway bar set sitting on the garage floor waiting for me to get to work. Daizen told me the bar diameters where the bushings sit is 32mm and 19mm.

geargrindr

Daizen makes great sway bars but lousy bushings. I have had them on my car for four years and have to take them apart and clean out all the old grease and use two tubes of their special grease on each side. I have to do this every 9 or 10 months. I tried other greases and they started squeeking even sooner. After contacting TM Engineering they said to only use their grease. $9.95 for 12 tubes is not much but add in $6.00 shipping. At that point I bought new bushings from them and have only used their grease but then again every 9-10 months you will get the sqwak when the suspension moves. Very irritating. I wonder if TRD sway's act the same? The only thing about installing a grease fitting to the sway bracket is that you still need to use their grease and it would take a ton of tubes to fill the grease gun. Not to mention cutting groves on the inside of the bushing for the grease to flow and thereby reducing the ridigness of the bushing. It will be interesting to find out how the Energy bushing last over the long haul.

rnsand6kds

I have the rear OEM Sway bar removed and the End Links reversed per the Daizen instructions. Those end links are kind of a b%*&#. Ran out of time to do any more tonight.

Preliminary observation is the universal bushing set for the rear will need to be modified to fit. The holes on the big gold bracket are set too wide and do not line up to mount properly. I may sand down the part of the bushing that contacts the gold bracket by about 1 to 1.5mm each side. This may allow the bracket to be pressed a wee bit closer together so the bolts will line up with their holes.

If I can't get that to fit then I will zerk fit the OEM bracket, drill a hole through the Diazen bushing at the right spot and dremmel some shallow channels to help spread the grease around.

I'll keep you posted and I am taking pictures. So hold off on any purchases.

rnsand6kds

Working on the Front sway bar now.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THE ENERGY SUSPENSION GREASIBLE BUSHINGS

No channels made for the 32mm bushing so the grease goes in and never gets through the hole in the bushing to the inside. It just squirts out around the bracket.

Use the daizen bushings with a zerk fitting on the OEM bracket. Drill a hole into the top of the bushing that lines up with the zerk fitting. Make some channels for the grease to move around the bar and we'll see how it all works out in 9-10 months.

DJC

Thanks for your feedback on the Energy Suspension Swaybar Bushings. I have also been looking for an alternative to the Daizen's and was considering trying Energy. I'm going to purchase new Daizen and try the zerk fittings with channels and see how it works.

Cheers,
DJC
Cheers,

rnsand6kds

Hey guys, someone asked me to post on how to do the Zerk fittings. I'll show what I did but have never done any of these tasks before. So let me know if I did anything wrong on the fitting and my apologies for all the 1-pic-per-page posts.

Drill a hole in the OEM bracket. This was a 3/16 drill bit for a tap that was marked 1/4-28. The package of zerk fittings said this also.

rnsand6kds

Tap it by hand, no power tools or it'll blaze through and strip out the hole. Kind of tedious but be patient and keep adding pressure while keeping the tap vertical (difficult for me, but if I can do it 4 times so can you).

rnsand6kds

Once tap grabs and has cut the threads into the metal it will easily "screw" in or out. Remove tap and clean up the jagged edges so nobody gets cut and so the bushing doesn't get chewed up where the hole is. I used a dremmel with a small grinding bit that looked like a metal rod with a rough end, not the cutting wheel, to grind the bits away without letting it get inside where the treads are and screwing up all your "hard" work.

After that take the Daizen bushing, fit it inside the OEM bracket and drill one 3/16 inch hole through the top so your future zerk fitting will feed the grease to the inside of the bushing.

Next step is to create your own channels to help the grease travel all around the inside of the bushing from the hole. No pics kids, got working too fast and my wife was talking to me at the same time. Maybe you know what that's like. Some notes on the bushing work;

Don't make channels that cut to the rim of the bushing. Meaning the outside edges that touch the sway bar. To do so would allow your grease to find the path of least resistance and "escape" from inside where we want it to stay.

I cut some like the pictures of the energy suspension greasible bushings. Google that to find their web site and see their examples. Others were just cut random pattern to make sure the grease will get all around without taking too much contact area from the inside of the bushing.

The channels need to touch the hole you made. Remember the path of least resistance.

Obviously, don't cut too deep. Maybe 1/16 inch deep (1 mm?).

A buddy at work has a Porsche 911 and all sorts of literature for that crowd. After my project was done (this is how he operates), he showed me some Porsche magazine article for after-market, racing-type, greasible bushings that have spiral cuts to spread the grease while not degrading the contact area/performance of the bushing. I'm sure they were about $44 billion per piece but you get the point of the design.

After all that is done, clean them up nice. Screw your zerk fitting into the neat threaded hole (I put some Loctite on the threads) and tighten it up carefully. Continue installation of the sway bar per the instructions. Here is a pic of the driver's side rear after install.

If you want, I can post some pics of the rear Daizen sway install. Didn't do it yet because it wasn't that tough at all. If you have a brain and follow the instructions you can figure it all out for yourself like I did.

Let me know if you think I messed anything up. Thus far the car has about 75-80% less sway and no squeaks. Nice for driving, makes you quietly smile to yourself. Of course, my wife has no idea what "performance" changed or why I spent our money on "that big red bar in the garage." Whaddaya gonna do with these people? Oh well.

Also, make sure the zerk fitting is clean before you regrease your sway down the road. You don't want to introduce an infection such as sand to the inside of your bushing.

Later kids,

Ross

gsCrazy

iTrader: (1)

Where did you guys buy the zero fittings and what size do we need?

rnsand6kds

NAPA I think. Package said 1/4" x 28 Standard Grease Fittings. There's ten in the package for about $6. I've got Lithium based grease with graphite in it. Nothing special.

sam430

iTrader: (10)

Something I need to do. Did you make a groove inside so that the greese will have a place to stay?

Also, anyone know the size of the urethane for the front and rear trd bushing? TIA.

sam12345

iTrader: (1)

What if you put a dp4 bushings in between the rubber and bar ? You may have to machine out some of the center to make it fit

http://www.tracepartsonline.net/(S(3...&sk_Reference=

baconcake

i purchased my sway bar bushings from energy suspension parts and they worked great! i greased them with the prothane grease and they fit really tight on the sway bars.