Finished installing my Helwig rear sway bar today. As far as fit & finish go.... I'm way less than impressed. Where it humps up over the pinion ..... driver's side has tons of room. Passenger's side there is a tiny fraction of an inch of clearance.... can't even get my pinky in between the bar and the web reinforcement on the side of the pinion. I can see there is likely to be contact there (CLUNK , CLUNK ). Also, one side is higher than the other where the end links attach. Had to pry down one end to get the bolt in, so its already trying to pull down one side of my truck, giving it the Polish lean. Haven't been in any curves yet, so no performance opinions.

 

It is! I excited!

 

Way better than anything I've ever done!

 

Getting it seriously hot and hammering it back into shape. Was probably bent at a 40 degree angle. He'll be getting a new one and an alignment he just needed to get home.

I had no idea that that metal could turn into licorice with enough heat.... Just a few hits with a hammer and it was straight again. Too cool for a noob like me.



Getting it back on. He is about 6 6 and 275 pounds, makes my 6 1 frame look tiny, but we work well together. I'm small enough to get into a lot of places he can't with his bear claw hands, and he's strong enough to go hulk on things that I couldn't have a hope of moving. He also brings of ton of experience to the table, and I'm learning a lot of hands on stuff from him. He hangs out over in the superduty and 5.4 forums, I'll have to get him into an Excursion.

Plus, it's always nice to have someone to talk to while working away.




Cheers,

Nate



PS - Snow you're too kind lol

 

I got told on Tuesday night that there was a change of plans for my Daughters prom coming up on Thursday night. We were not going to use the wifes Escape, to drive not just my daughter and date, but now we would be transporting two other couples, too. We needed more room.

I carry my dogs in the Ex, and had not cleaned it for well over a year. Dog hair and dirt, sand, etc. everywhere. I said rent something, and daughter said, NO, she wanted Zombie Crusher. Then SWMBO made it an order punishable by mental pain for life.

Sigh. Was unable to start cleaning until Wed evening. 19 man hours later with breaks only for food, sleep and bathroom, and It was fully detailed inside and no dog hair left. A quick machine wash at the local Shammy Shine , and it was finally done about one hour before time to leave.

Shower, put on suit, and the chauffeur was ready.

That Ex was FILTHY!!!!! I don't know why I let it get so bad, but this was a reminder to keep up the cleaning.

Prom was a success, and I'm beat. I just got back from taking all of the kids to their respective homes.

At least the Ex is clean, now. Thank God for My Rug Doctor machine, Formula 409, Hoover Pet Hair vacuums, Q-tips and 5 Hour energies. Time to crash now..

 

The trick to keeping a clean truck is keep up on it constantly then it doesn't take so long and is never that bad. I owned my own detailing business for years and it amazes me how dirty people let things get (down right disgusting). when i call one of my trucks "filthy" most would consider it clean.

 

Started with an oil change. Almost one year since the last one. While laying underneath I noticed a caliper slide pin bolt was missing. $13 later. Which only extended the whole ordeal, including a hub greasing with my riffraff zerk, (Sorry snowman) slide pin/caliper lube and a tire rotation. Under the rear I noticed another bolt missing. So I applied blue loctite to all of them. On the drivers front which is still halfway apart one of the sliders was frozen in there. Got it removed with a little heat, vise grip and a dead blow. Will have to pick up a slider pair tommorow.

 

Good to hear about a successful prom House!

Shopping for rear rotors and pads for the X, and undecided on pulling the trigger locally for napa ultra, or bitting the bullet and ordering some Hawk pads and EBC rotors from summit. Darn shipping to Canada is expensive for us. The only difference in price is going to be the exchange rate and shipping costs.

I have had awesome feel with the front mounted cryo's and hawk pads for 4 years now, and should have replaced the rear rotors a while ago. Have a heat spot on the back rotors that creates the wobble feel while braking, that is getting worse now.

 

I went with Hawk pads on rear and some O'Reilly rotors. The only thing I would change is using some centric rotors so they don't rust.

 

Did you have to change the relay to make them work?.....and do you have them in the tails??

 

No changing of relays.

 

I could not get one side of mine to level at the link ends either with the link all the way screwed in it still sits down. Mine handles fine with no clunk.

 

What part of the frozen tundra are you in?

The shipping rates from the US to Canada are criminal, never mind the duties etc,. Usually those two factors kill whatever savings outside of what the exchange rate is.

I can't wait to move out of here. So sick and tired of being robbed blind at every turn.

 

I've got some of these on their way to me. For others considering one thing I like about these is that when you turn your flasher on they go amber/off and NOT amber/white.

For me there are several places around me that require DRL or headlights being on for a stretch of highway - this takes care of that without having all my illumination (including head unit) dim.

 

Ok, so I've driven the Ex around town a little. Got back under it and this is what I have with my Helwig rear sway bar. Though I can take a pry bar and create clearance between the sway bar and the web on my pinion, the bar naturally wants to center itself on the end links. When it centers itself it is literally up against the rear end housing. I guess I can now see why the previous owner of my Ex removed the bar. Anyone want to offer an opinion on how to easily fix this and keep the sway bar??


At this point I'm thinking easiest (but not necessarily the best) option is grind the web enough to create clearance. Option two is buy some 1/2 flat stock .... or maybe I'll need thicker spacers, and make some spacers to space out the sway bar mounts out away from the shock mounts. Although this will likely require longer U bolts for the shock mount.


See pics above.......


Again, I say what a disappointment the fit is on the Helwig. I hope the revised bars are better.