For the longest time the front end'* been really loosey-goosey since one strut is just about empty and the wheel would bounce around, plus for some reason the stabilizer bar link bolts were loose. Not broken, but so loose that I could turn the bolts with my fingers when the car was up on ramps, and when I went over bumps in the road while the windows were open, I could actually _hear_ the washers on the link bolts rattling and ringing like little bells. Really weird!

So I finally got under the car last weekend and got the bolts out. Sheared 'em off with a socket wrench and a 13mm socket on each end (3/8" ratchet and deep socket on top, turned to jam against the strut, then a 1/2" ratchet for leverage with a short socket on the bottom, a good twist on the 1/2" ratchet, and *crunch*; the bolt shears through just below the nut, and the pieces come right out). Putting each broken bolt back together showed that the nut was still all the way on the bolt as far down as it would go, and hadn't backed off at all. Urethane bushings were solid as rocks and were not compressed. All I can think of is maybe the tube spacer in the middle got scraped away at both ends or something and became too short, but basically these link bolts were doing _nothing_ for me.

Got a box of Moog Performance link bolts (blue urethane), popped them in, tightened them down, and Hey! No more bouncy-bouncies! No more ringy-dingies! Nice quiet, tight steering again! At least the front end loads are now taken up by the one remaining good strut, thanks to a solid mounting on the stabilizer bar once again, so I won't be beating the front end to pieces while I gather up the money for a pair of new struts.

What are the specs on those? How did you select the size? I am going to replace the rubber ones I got from the dealer with polyurethane ones. The original ones that I pulled were polyurethane.

I am also confused by the GM parts listing for those. According to the microfilms, the only replacement link kit for all of the 93 Bonnys is rubber!

Right, the old originals I had looked like a yellowish polyurethane, although after 10 years they were hard as rocks (and maybe shrunk, too).

Dunno -- it'* not unknown for GM to start lumping parts together as the years go by, making one basic part be the listed replacement instead of the three or four different variants originally listed for, say, different trim levels of car: different bushing thicknesses for different ride quality in an SE vs. an SSE, that kind of thing.

For my car I just went on over to Lee Auto Parts, and they found two possibilities in the Moog brand: a basic rubber set, which sounds like what you're hearing about, and a blue high-performance set for $5-$8 more, which I bought. The rubber set is probably fine for the SE/LE civilian models; for the SSE/SSEi warbirds with the beefier suspension, the blue set is probably a better choice.

Hey, looky here: I just pulled the file on my car (having the computer next to the filing cabinet is real handy) and found the receipt: it was a pair of Moog K8989 link kits, total price $22.45 plus tax.

Were those perfectly sized for your car, or did they need to be adjusted?

I basically just bolted them in. You want to crank down the nut on each until the bushings are compressed to the size of the washers on either side of each (I guess it'* possible to overdo that, but common sense and checking every couple of turns should be enough to avoid that problem); that was about all there was to it.

Get them at any auto parts store? Maybe a techinfo article?

I would think so. Lee Auto had them just sitting on the shelf.

I think you could probably just cut-and-paste my initial article from the top of this thread for that...

I think I agree with you there...

Okay, here goes...

It might benefit, in cornering. Basically what your antisway bar link bolts are doing are connecting the strut on one side to the strut on the other side to control body roll. i.e. if the link bolts break, the antisway bar is disconnected from the suspension, which allows either front wheel to compress independently of the other. This allows for some really sloppy body roll in corners, as the outboard wheel compresses under the cornering load, and the inboard wheel does nothing.

With the antisway bar in place, the outboard wheel can't compress very easily, because it'* connected to the antisway bar, which doesn't want to twist, and the inboard wheel, which doesn't want to compress. So the cornering load is spread among both struts and the antisway bar, and it'* much harder for the body to roll to one side as a result.

(In comparison, if you bounce the whole front end up and down, both wheels bouncing at the same time, the antisway bar doesn't do a whole lot for you because it'* being twisted at both ends simultaneously, and only the resistance of its mounting bushings can dampen that motion.)

So if you install softer bushings, you're allowing greater flex at the link bolts, which in turn allows a bit more roll movement on one side before all the flex is taken up and the roll movement is dampened by the antisway bar and by the strut on the inboard side. The more rigid your bushings are, the more resistance and less flex you introduce against cornering and body-roll motion.

Having said all that, the stiffer bushings may give you a slightly harsher ride, and you might want to stick with the bushings that were probably original-equipment on your car, unless and until you replace them all with a more-rigid material. Otherwise your new, stiffer bushings will just transfer the load up the line to the other, older, less-rigid mountings along the way. Realistically, it'* not a difficult installation, so if you don't like the ride, you can swap them out and go with the other pair instead.

i replaced mine with ploy urathnae bushings i think they were between 20 and 30$ US
I got them at autozone or checker auto parts one or the other i think autozone

they can be a pain to install?!