1995 E320 Sway Bar Bushing and Bracket replacement
 

I'm replacing the sway bar bushing and a broken sway bar bracket on my car. I'm planning to place front of the car on ramps so I have more space to do the work. Will that place a load on the sway bar and it may just pop out after I start taking it apart? After reading the threads it seems to be a pretty straight forward and a lot of them indicated that you can do this while they are on the ground in a normal stance. Anything else I need to know? What is the best procedure?

Cheers,

Generally, the front sway bar will only be under load if the suspension struts/springs are compressed asymmetrically. If your ramps and rear wheels are all on a level surface, there should no (or very little) load. To make yourself feel better, undo the two center frame mounts first, then disconnect the control arm connections. With the two center mounts undone, it's almost impossible to load the bar.

J. M. van Swaay

Thanks! Just to clarify..if I have the front wheels on ramps and the rear wheels on the ground and they are all on a level surface, there will be little or no load on the sway bar. Correct?

do yourself a favor and replace the outer bushings as well.

I'm changing all of them since they are all perished. Now, I have the two inner ones inside the sway bar but the outer ones are not fitting in at all. I have a feeling that my sway bar for the wagon has a larger diameter. Can anyone shed some light on this one?

wagon is larger..... call peach parts

Called PeachParts. Ordered the parts from Phil. Delivered and Installed. Does anyone know when is the next recommended interval for a bushing replacement?

Cheers,

Just curious what your symptoms were? My E320 wagon will have intermittent "clunking" (not really metal-to-metal sound) almost like the bushings in question are age hardened (which I'd guess they are!). This seems to happen generally soon after starting from the garage in the morning - not so much so later. (Kinda seems like me when I get up in the morning! :eek:)

The car has 87K mi on it so I'm thinking it may be time for change?

I would try to isolate the clunking noise by spraying silicone on the rubber parts. If it goes away, then it's better to change it now than later. The parts cost is not expensive and it is a straightforward DIY work.