legacycentral bbs

My recently obtained rear endlinks showed the typical shot top bushing. The bottom bushing, since it is held fixed on both sides by the lateral link bracket, was fine.

The stock arrangement has a few flaws: the bolts have 9mm plain shanks that fit into 10mm sleeves in the bushings (rattle!); and the bushing design with the steel sleeve cannot be snugged up as things start to get loose.

I obtained four 10mm by 60mm bolts, half plain shank, and stop nuts to replace the stock hardware. Urethane tube stock, 1" OD and 3/8" hole, was on hand as were four large cup washers 1.25" OD (standard skateboard truck hardware). www.mcmaster.com has both as well as the bolts. I punched the old top bushing out and determined that the bushing length needed to be 1 1/8".

The bushing fits so tight that it had to be soaped to get it in.
the cup washers go on either side of the bushing when the bolt is forced through.

It is critical to feed the bolt such that the plain shank is inside the new bushing; threads would cut it up. That is the stock orientation anyway. Assemble the links onto the sway bar, carefully center the bushing, and tighten up. The bushing is totally snug even before tightening, but after is really stiff. The cup washers, edges turned outboard, make the bushing flare out as the bolt is tightened, and prevent cuts.

Note that the cup washers are (and must be!!!) too big to fit through the hole in the link, or the link could fall off.

Big advantage of this arragement is that the bolt can be further snugged to remove slack as wear sets in, and the bushing can be replaced at a cost of maybe 50 cents, on the car, in minutes.

I think the plastic links get a bum rap, 50% glass nylon is strong stuff.

The stock plastic links only get a bad wrap by those who have upgraded sway bars. Anything bigger than stock, overpowers the tiny links and that little bit of flex that the plastic allows creates a relatively unstable edge of control. Flex = bad.

Stock swaybars will flex before the stock endlinks will.

When you have upgraded sway bars (21+ I would imagine), well, lets just say it's hard to push the envelope when the knife edge of control you are riding on, is serrated. Even solid endlinks on stock bars will produce a lot flatter cornering simply by removing compliance.

Bonus points for improving a stock design though! Pics? There seem's to be a lot of improvements that have been thought of by the legacycentral community that should have been done stock

How does it handle now?

whoa whoa whoa im confused. plastic endlinks? Mine are steel. I just torqued the snot out of the bushings and that alone made a considerable improvement.

On a side note- prof, you continually impress me with your insight and/or creativitiy.

Don't pre 92's have drop links? I.E. straight bits of steel rather than the C-shaped links the 92+ get?

I wonder if the endlinks from a WRX would work. I should see if my buddy has the stock ones from his 05 GT so I can compare.

Mine's got a straight bit 'o steel.

Yes, the 90-91's have drop links. They are steel.

The 92+ have endlinks, and they are plastic, and yes the WRX endlinks are the same

Is either configuration (drop vs. C) better than the other?

Could I switch to a c-link from my drop link? That would mean a few more aftermarket options open to me......

Just ran outside to check.... Seems my 92 Turbo has droplinks.

The good thing is I noticed one of the bushings seems to be coming out of the sway bar, so now I know I have to go over that end of the car when its light out.

Thank you Josh. Do you know if our front links are the same as well?

yup....front end links are the exact same. I think some of the newer gen (3rd gen) legacies had slightly different end links in the front, but from what I have seen all the imprezas have the same setup we do. I'm running the whiteline ones on mine.


Also....I've got a set of Whiteline droplinks with poly bushings if someone is interested in them. They'll be an upgrade over stock, if you don't feel like going to the C style endlinks.

Yeah I would think the plastic links would be inadequate for a really heavy bar.

I do think the droplinks could be fixed with skateboard bushings as well. The urethane is high quality and available at your local skate shop for a few bucks

I got the whole set-up off a '93 turbo, and the plastic links have date codes that say "92-93-94" on them.

I think the way the bushing is made stock isn't really right for the top, where the bolt is cantilevered. My design allows the bushing to be squeezed tight, which is impossible with the metal core.

Pics should be easy as the whole deal is on my living room floor, bar, links, trailings arms. I only had Saturday to work and the weather was abysmal, so no mounty for now. A also have NINE FEET of the rubber tubing, so I may consider making some for trade.

The front links are a whole different deal, I'm either going to replace them outright or make metal bearing links, I think my car needs to be stiffened up in the front, and rigid links is one way to do that.