Broken rear end link

[Moonpie.Express]

Car has 55K on her.
I was getting some tires mounted at a friends garage. I was able to get up under the car and poke around (without lying on my back!!!). Noticed the right rear end link was broke/bent.

I know AWR sells adjustable ones, does anyone have any feedback on those? I was planning on upgrading to Hotchkiss or Cobb in the future, will this be a problem with these?

Also found a rim that is bent on the inside. She balanced with no weights. I was the one that noticed, once it was spinning on the balancer.
I know of two instances where I hit seams on the hiway at speed and felt as if I ripped my front end off. This might have possibly broke the end link also.

Car still drives fine for daily commutes, but I gotta take care of this.

 

[CHIEFSMS3]

AWR endlinks will work fine on the OEM bars and probably the Cobb bars.
They will not work on the Hotchkis bars without modification.
The Hotchkis bar is considerably thicker than stock and the threaded stud on the AWR endlink is not long enough to allow the nut to tighten properly.
The hole is also larger than OEM bar. So the nut will continually loosen even with loctite on it.
Here is a procedure for modifying the AWR endlink I got form Rotus8:

"When I first installed the links, I noticed the link studs were significantly smaller than the holes in the bar, and also a bit short. When they started clunking, I made some bushings to go between the stud and the holes, and also got some thin locking nuts. Then, one of the studs sheered off. My solution was to remove the studs and replace them with bolts. Removal was not too hard: grind off the swaged part of the stud and drive it out with a punch and hammer. The original stud is smaller than the hole in the link spherical bearing. I put in a stainless cap screw that fit the link, and also is a better fit in the ARB, eliminating the bushing, and I used a long enough bolt so I can use a standard size locking nut - win, win. If I remember correctly, the stud is 7/16" and I replaceed it with a 3/8" bolt, about 2" long.

My suggestion is to stack some washers on the bolt surrounding the spherical bearing in the end link. The stack I made uses a standard size washer, small OD washer, link bearing, small OD washer, standard washer, ARB, standard washer, nut. The reasoning is the small OD washers will allow the spherical bearing to turn a bit more if suspension motion requires it. The larger washers are to deal with the slightly oversize hole in the ARB and clamping of the nut. Makes sense?"

That is all I can do for you. Good luck.

 

[mrjoshyman]

does any1 know if AWR has resolved the issue of their endlinks not working with hotchkis RSB?

i ask b/c i need to replace the drivers side rear endlink, somehow the part where u put the allen wrench in (on the inside of the sway bar) got stripped.

anyone know how much OEM ones go for?

 

[CHIEFSMS3]

AWR has an adjustable endlink that is designed to work with aftermarket sway bars like the Hotchkis now.
http://www.awrracing.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=494