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well one of my swaybar endlinks broke, so rather than buy new stock or ridiculously priced aftermarket items, I made some myself. I assembled them from two male and two female 3/8" heims, 2 jam nuts, and some 3/8" grade 8 hardware. they were amazingly cheap, around $3.50 ea. I drilled out the mounting hole on the control arm to 3/8." very solid, strong, and the bling factor is way up there.
this is the place I bought the heims from, and what I got
http://www.stockcarproducts.com/rodend1.htm
http://www.stockcarproducts.com/rodend2.htm

sorry about the ridiculously bad pic, it was taken with my roommates flatfoto

Very nice !

I was thinking of doing similarly with stainless hardware, which would push the price up to about $20 total for each.

I may also be try to replace the worn bushings in my stock links with urethane skateboard truck bushings. There is no excuse for the high prices that Subaru charges for a little piece of rubber, let alone the aftermarket.

One thing for sure I'm not shelling out over $100.

Pretty cool!

I'm unfamiliar with the term "heim." That's what these rod ends are? What are they normally used for?

very cool

Way to get crafty, you get 25 GG points!

Heim must be the inventor or the dominant company for early production. They are normally used as connections between rods and other mechanical items, allowing significant freedom of movement in rotation and translation while still keeping things rigidly attached. They are more universally called spherical bearing rod ends.

If you look on race cars you will see them all over, anywhere on a conventional car where you may have a bushing for compliance, there may be a rod end bearing. Not only rigid but adjustable as well. Tie rods ends on virtually any car are essentially heim joints with a protective bootie, as are the lower ball joints.

I modified some of my skateboard trucks to use spherical bearings in place of rubber bushings to take out the slop, and thus keep the dreaded wobbles at bay.

Cool.

wow.. that looks fun! I wanna do it, too! writeup, writeup!

writeup?
1. order 2 female 3/8" right hand thread heims, 2 males, 2 jam nuts, get some 3/8 bolts and nuts from the hardware store
2. wait for the parts in the mail
3. drill out your control arm endlink mounts to 3/8
4. assemble the heims using the old endlinks as a model for correct eye to eye length, using lots of red loctite and torque
5. install with plenty of loctitie and torque
any more questions?

Do you know what size the stock endlink mount threads are?

Big Red X for me...

Ohh, that could save me some money when I get arould to buying all the stuff I need to put in a rear bar.

I resized and cropped your picture. That thing is huge
here you go
_

vrg3 wrote:Do you know what size the stock endlink mount threads are?

not sure what you are asking...my endlinks used nuts and bolts throughout. no threaded parts. the control wrm holes were 5/16 or so and the swaybar holes are 3/8. the bolts and heims I got are both 3/8, 1.5 thread pitchx24t

You had to drill out the endlink mounts on your car to 3/8" so the bolts would fit, right? I was wondering if you knew what the threads were on the stock endlink bolts.

I guess "5/16 or so" is part of the answer... so they're probably M8x1.25 or M8x1.0.

yeah, m8. my calipers are MIA but prolly 1.5 pitch the threads arent very fine.

I think the coarse M8 threads are 1.25 pitch... But if they didn't look fine then they probably weren't 1.0 pitch.

Hehe, for a second I thought you meant "Yeah, mate."

M10 sounds more likely. I can check when I get home. I smell what you're stepping in, Vikash, just get the proper metric size parts so nothing has to be drilled.

Yes, that's what I'm hoping is possible.

10mm is larger than 3/8", so you wouldn't have had to drill it out if it was M10.

vrg3 wrote:Yes, that's what I'm hoping is possible.

10mm is larger than 3/8", so you wouldn't have had to drill it out if it was M10.

I just confirmed the stock hardware on my GF Impreza rear endlinks is M10. I'm sure that's what I was thinking about. I don't know if BC Legacy is the same or not.

Is 206er suggesting that these be used on the rear or the front?

-edit- I just checked 206er's sig to find that he is talking about a 91 wagon, so I'd assume he is talking about the front endlinks.

originally I wanted to keep the stock hardware too. the main problem is that there are no heims available that have a 10mm hole and M12 threads, or a 12mm hole and M10 threads. the threads correspond to the hole size. It could be done afew different ways, like using solid bar that was drilled and tapped for 2 different sizes of male heims, but that was more trouble than just drilling out the control arm for what is a stronger solution anyway. Drilling holes in vital parts does feel kinda wrong, but hey, it wasnt too much.

metric heims also cost twice what US sizes cost, or more

Yeah, I hear ya... I was just thinking about loud. I don't like cutting my car any more than necessary.

I don't follow -- why does the thread size of the heim matter? As long as both the male and female heims have the same thread, and it's not ridiculously small, it should be fine, right?

Maybe one could use the same heims you did, and then get some bolts that have a 3/8" shank but M8 threads at the end.

or use some sleeves that had a 8mm ID and a 3/8 OD to go over the bolt but inside the hiem, then another spacer with 3/8 ID over that to locate the heim in the bracket if that makes any sense...

Yeah, I was thinking about that too... it'd just be nicer if it was all one piece so you wouldn't have to worry about things falling out of place when assembling/disassembling it.

Fine 3/8" external threads have a minor diameter just over 8mm, so it seems like it should be pretty easy to take a 3/8" bolt, turn the threads off, and then rethread it with fine M8 or 5/16" threads.

this is going to sound strange, but the factory hardware is in fact M9. Not only that, but the factory bolts are "reduced shank", the plain shank diameter is smaller than the thread outer diameter,
like head bolts

M8 sounded too small and fragile to me.

I measured the bolts by caliper, and when doing so wiped off enough of the scum to see the "9" on the bolt heads.

Actually the stock arrangement sucks, the reduced shank bolt would rattle around in the bushing's steel tube core, even new. I'm going to fit up some new 10mm hardware and stick new rubber in the factory links. That should work better than stock for a few bucks. The skateboard buchings I have 1" OD 3/8" ID should be a perfect tight fit.