Front sway bar "slop"

None. The bushings should firmly grip the sway bar. They aren't rubber either, they are (or should be synthetic material). If there is slop, the bushings need replaced. You might try Energy Suspension for replacement bushings.

Agreed, none.

Get a Hellwig , you will be much happier then replacing the bushings on that puny undersized stock one !
Replacing the front undersized Anti Sway Bar is the best bang for the buck hands down...

OFDPOS wrote:
Get a Hellwig , you will be much happier then replacing the bushings on that puny undersized stock one !
Replacing the front undersized Anti Sway Bar is the best bang for the buck hands down...

Not sure about the 'Hellwig' hype.

A sway bar is simply a torsion bar (just like the old school Chrysler torsion bar suspension) but instead of supporting the vehicle, it transfers (via torsion) the lean from one side of a vehicle to the other side of the vehicle, reducing 'felt sway' and so long as the bar is of sufficient diameter and made from the correct heat treated steel, it will work correctly (so long as the bushings and links are not sloppy.

Big issue with any sway bar is it limits suspension movement vertically, which is why off road folks use sway bar disconnect links. Sway bars are fine on the pavement but not good off road where you need suspension articulation. I run Skyjacker adjustable disconnect links on my F350 4x4 so I can not only disconnect the sway bar but I can 'tune' the bar to various on road conditions.

Most sway bar's are restrained with polyurethane bushings, not rubber.

The bushings are rubber or now days synthetic rubber NOT polyurethane and that's why they are wollowed out to say.

Ford as most things went the cheap route and put the same size Anti sway bar on the E-150 on up to the E-450 hence why I recommended he replace the way undersized front one with a Hellwig.

Most new replacement ones are supplied with polyurethane bushings Not stock ones tho ... ;)

As another poster here made the comment , by upgrading the undersized Anti sway bars, we are trying to get rid of the driving like a drunk sailor effect ..

With our Class C motorhomes, we are neither racing nor offroading. We are trying to manage a heavy, wide, long, high box mounted on an inexpensive delivery truck chassis.

What we need is lots of roll stiffness, and those big 1-3/8" front, 1-1/2" rear bars accomplish that.

Op here. Wish it was 1 3/8". But a '7604' Hellwig is only 1 1/8", never the less, bigger than stock.

tarnold wrote:
Op here. Wish it was 1 3/8". But a '7604' Hellwig is only 1 1/8", never the less, bigger than stock.

Please let us know which chassis you're interested in a Hellwig bar for, and whether for front or rear.

We were thinking Ford E-Series, but I think I remember the Hellwig rear bar for Chevy 3500 being 1-1/2" also.

EDIT: Oh, E-350 with the 1992-2007 "Poke-In Ends". That's what we had and the Hellwig bar for that application IS 1-3/8". Your Hellwig rear bar should be 1-1/2".

Front installation does not poke into the axle. It looks like this:


The round hole in the axle is where the bushing for a bar like you now have is installed. The pad with surface rust and a bolt hole is what Ford added in 2008 when they abandoned the ineffective bar they used since 1992.

Roadmaster uses a more "elegant" mounting, but at half the price, Hellwig is completely satisfactory. We ran ours for several years on the original 2002 axle. It never worked loose or gave a problem. A few years ago, I installed a 2012 axle, switched the Hellwig to it, and it has again been fine.

I tried a Helwig front stabilizer bar a few years ago on my 2005 E350 Ford class b van. The big difference between stock and Helwig bars is that the stock one is hollow tubular material whereas the Helwig is solid material. I can't remember all the details but I eventually removed and returned the Helwig bar because it kept coming loose where the ends were fastened and being on the road, it becomes a hassle. The brackets were kind of a hokey setup and I think I had to replace the bushing in the I-beam with a helwig one. When the bar was tight and working, I felt a lot of improvement in the handling but the hassles of losing fasteners and brackets were too much. Don't flame me for misstatements because I don't remember every detail.