I have noticed a rattle when I go over bumps and found the culprit.

In the photo, it is the vertical black post in the center of the picture (not the shock absorber). Both driver's and passenger's sides are loose. What are these and can they simply be tightened?



Thanks

 

If you are talking about the sway bar end links, then yes they can be tightened up.

 

The sway bar end links break fairly easily and with that formed plastic it is hard to tell they are broken without jacking a tire up and separating the break. NAPA has superior links to Fords and they also cost less. They were around $30 a pair a few years back. If they are in fact just loose 'd suggest replacing them before they break as they are a PITA to get out once they break.

 

Thanks guys. It appears they are both loose so I'll replace them tomorrow.

 

Brother i took mine smooth out, one less part that can break.

 

Dont remove them, just replace them....the truck will sway all over the place and wear your ball joints out alot quicker!!!

 

Rip those suckers out. If you have problems cut em out. The best replacement, IMO is MOOG, just replaced the sway bar end links and sway bar bushing and MOOG is the way to go. Instead of a plastic shaft cover, i'll call it, it's a stainless steel one. Have you thought about replacing the sway bar bushings while you were under there? takes about 10 minutes.

 

Good point papajoe,
While I'm down there, I'll inspect them. My truck only has 59,000 miles so the bushings should be OK, but I'll check.

As for the comment about removing them alltogether, wouldn't you think the engineers at Ford designed the truck to handle better with the sway bars intact?

 

I agree, I dont think I would take any of his advice. Mine was broke on the driver side, it swayed all over the place........**** can his advise!!!!

 

Mine on both sides were broke I fixed them this summer and used napa parts which seem to be much better then I replaced both the upper and lower ball joints. Hey does anyone no why u cant get upper ball joints on a 99 F150 because wen I went to replace them I had to get the whole control arm. Im guessing it was a recall on the control arm itself and that the ball joint was just to small or something along those lines

 

True, 59,000 the bushings shouldn't be bad but it never hurts to give em a look or any other suspension part under there a check on that matter. for the comment on removing them all together, the sway bar should only be removed for rock crawling or other offroad apps, the front suspension will be unstable on the road and your chancing of rolling on a turn is greatly increased for the sway bar helps distribute the forces when you go around a turn preventing it from flipping over...like bowdog said ****can his advice.

 

I got the replacement kit from Napa and they are heavy duty with all the bushings nuts and washers. After I installed them, there is no more rattle when driving over bumps.

 

Any replacement is better than what's on there. i personally like to use MOOG because if I replaced a part on my truck it's MOOG going back on...not anything else. MOOG the problem solver.

 

I had to replace both of mine by 70K. Duralast brand are made by MOOG.(At least mine were. Moog parts in a Duralast box from AutoZone)

 

I didn't know that, but any replacement is good. Just do work man.