Early to mid 90's Suburban owners

[MikeTangas]

Do any of you have a problem with the sway bar mounts coming loose?

Last year I came home for one of my visits, wifey tells me the Suburban is "riding funny", I go for a quick spin and sure enough the front end is shaking and knocking. A quick look revealed that the right sway bar mount had come loose and the knocking was coming from the bar hitting the frame. I picked up new bushings and retaining straps and cured the problem.

Fast foreward to this month. Home on a visit, take a drive out to Castaic for a pistol match and the front end is feeling loose again. Check out the sway bar and find the right mount is coming loose again. Looks like I'll be spending the day under the Suburban.

This is a 1993, 3/4 ton 2WD model with a mere 175K. It is used mostly for traveling to/from pistol matches and hauling horses. I can't seem to grasp a logical reason for the mount to come loose twice especially since the rest of the front suspension is in great shape.

[MikeTangas]

Well, I think I fixed it and think I figured out what happened.

This sway bar issue started after an alignment, the one where the shop had to cut out the slots in the frame to increase the amount of adjustment. Prior to the '93 model the adjustment could be made with shims but for '93 and later the frame needed to be slotted. I believe in the process the bolts for the sway bar mount had to be loosened and upon tightening the threads got buggered. Last year when I found the mount loose I simply tightened it back up and thought thatw as the end of it.

What I found this morning was that the bolt had loosened and actually pulled out, leaving a threadless hole in the frame. Once I got the rest of the sway bar mount out of the way I was able to drill out the hole a little larger, tapped and inserted a grade 8 7/16" bolt. The original bolt was a 10M and the 7/16 fell between a 10M and 12M. The new bolt is the perfect size to avoid modifying the mount, the 12M would have required significant modification of the mount for the head to clear.

Time will tell.

[BobK]

Mike, I have a '93 K2500 Sub and I have never had any trouble with the sway bar (and it's huge!). Only thing I have is tie rod ends wearing out. And I grease the front end regularly. Yes, even the blasted idler arm fitting and front drive shaft fitting. Probably gonna need ball joints soon, after only 209k miles!

[MikeTangas]

Never had any probs with the tie rods. I did have the idler arm replaced at the same time they did the frame slotting. I'm pretty sure the sway bar mount problem is related to that alignment repair. Other than that this has been a very reliable ride. Took it out to the horses yesterday afternoon, on the roughest road and everything held up. We'll see how the repair holds up over time.