OK... so the front sway bar saga has an update... After scouring craigslist and ebay for either an after-market bar or a used factory unit, I found a correct small-body bar in up-state New York. Turns out a guy on the AMCForum ( http://theamcforum.com/ ) message board had one from a part-out. I sent him the money via paypal and he shipped UPS...
The bar and brackets were pretty rusty, but solid. I took a brass wheel to them and got the bulk of the scale off. I took everything to work today to put the parts through the tumblers. The brackets went into the small tumbler with steel shot, Pretty aggressive media.They cleaned up really well. The bar was too big for the small, round tumbler, so it went into the big, oval unit. We use ceramic media in the big tumbler. Not as aggressive, but it did a pretty decent job. I brought them home and applied two coats of Rustoleum primer and two coats of gloss black. The finish isn't perfect, but when you consider where a sway bar lives, perfect won't stay that way for long.
I have what I believe to be correct 15/16" polyurethane bushings on order. The bushings are listed as a Javelin part, but AMC did a lot of parts-bin engineering. The brackets bolt to the subframe rails via 5/16-18 nuts set inside the rail. I'll use grade-8 fasteners, although it may be overkill. I have the end-links and bushings already, so this should be an easier install than the rear bar (famous last words).
I'll post pictures in a bit. I wish I would have taken pix of the bar and brackets in their "rough" state, but I'm not that clever. So it's officially time to cancel the back order with Jegs...
Well, Jegs finally received confirmation from ADDCO that the bar was still back-ordered, so Jegs refunded my Paypal account and cancelled the order. I tried to test fit the brackets, and couldn't get the bolts to thread. After confirming that the inserts are indeed 5/16-18, a forum member suggested that I chase the threads to remove any grime, grease and rust that may have settled in the threads. Brilliant idea... except that when I went to chase the last thread (the first 3 cleared beautifully), I found a broken bolt in the last hole. DOH!
So it's off to Sears to get Easy-Outs...
Wish me luck, I'll need it. The other option is drilling it out and re-tapping... thanks, but no thanks.
If you hear swearing coming from the general direction of Painesville, Ohio, that will be me...
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