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Trac Bar, replace bushings or entire bar?

Old Feb 9, 2011 | 04:41 PM
  #1  
89dieselkong's Avatar
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Trac Bar, replace bushings or entire bar?

So I noticed today that the bushings are shot on my trac bar. Moving the wheel side to side there is major play with the tracbar on the bolts. My question is, do I need to replace the entire trac bar ( besides the obvious pluses to upgrading the unit) or can I just put new poly bushings into the stock bar and be fine??
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Old Feb 9, 2011 | 05:36 PM
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OldDodgeOwner's Avatar
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Long as the bar isn't bent, I'd say just put new bushings in. I know Geno's sells them.
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Old Feb 10, 2011 | 12:32 PM
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Your sig shows you have a 2" leveling kit. I would go ahead and purchase an adjustable bar and get the front end back to center. I went with this one and have been happy so far.

http://www.thecarlisuspension.com/do.../trackbar.html
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Old Feb 10, 2011 | 09:38 PM
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Originally Posted by baytownbrown
Your sig shows you have a 2" leveling kit. I would go ahead and purchase an adjustable bar and get the front end back to center. I went with this one and have been happy so far.

http://www.thecarlisuspension.com/do.../trackbar.html
Ditto, except mine is from Thuren. I think anytime you raise the front end, you should recenter the axle.
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Old Feb 10, 2011 | 10:10 PM
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I didn't notice you had a leveling kit. In that case, I'd probably spring for an adjustable bar as well.
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Old Feb 11, 2011 | 09:53 AM
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Yep, better to do it right the first time and spring for the new bar. I'll have to wait for that option. I too noticed that after I put my leveling spacers in that I had a clunk in the front end and it was no longer centered. When I realized I could go to NAPA and get new bushings for under 20 bucks as opposed to a 3-400 dollar bar....well you can guess what I did. I thought I'd just change them out in the driveway..WRONG!!! Ended up using a press at work to remove the old bushings. Took almost 8k lbs to break the bushing free. It's a steel sleeve with the rubber embedded in it. The new bushings go in super easy with some grease....pushed them in by hand. Re-installed and tightened up the bolts and no more clunk, but for some reason those new bushings did nothing for re-centering that darn axle .
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Old Feb 11, 2011 | 10:07 AM
  #7  
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Originally Posted by jhenson
Yep, better to do it right the first time and spring for the new bar. I'll have to wait for that option. I too noticed that after I put my leveling spacers in that I had a clunk in the front end and it was no longer centered. When I realized I could go to NAPA and get new bushings for under 20 bucks as opposed to a 3-400 dollar bar....well you can guess what I did. I thought I'd just change them out in the driveway..WRONG!!! Ended up using a press at work to remove the old bushings. Took almost 8k lbs to break the bushing free. It's a steel sleeve with the rubber embedded in it. The new bushings go in super easy with some grease....pushed them in by hand. Re-installed and tightened up the bolts and no more clunk, but for some reason those new bushings did nothing for re-centering that darn axle .
This is why you need an adjustable trac bar. All of these lift "kits" are wrong when they don't include a new trac bar. The more you lift, the more you are pulling your axle to one side, the more you are pulling your control arms to that side. After awhile it really screws up your front end. Ask me how I know. And I had one of those expensive KORE suspensions... which didn't include a trac bar (but should have)... When I recentered my axle with an adjustable bar my steering wheel was so far off it was scary (more than 90degrees) and this was entirely due to driving for 50,000 plus miles with an off center axle.
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Old Feb 12, 2011 | 07:44 AM
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My axle is less than an inch off center which is probably way off in the grand scheme of things but it actually drives pretty well for 300k miles. No tire wear or screwy movements going down the road. Have too many irons in the fire right now to get a new adjustable bar but once the projects dwindle I'm getting back to work on the truck.
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Old Feb 12, 2011 | 10:06 PM
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This place has what you need. I'd keep your bar and just replace the bushing

http://lazarsmith.com/SSSSS.html
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