Difficulty with inner front sway bar mount 1 inch sway bar

[Vkgallo]

Has anyone else ran into this issue? A few years ago I purchased a 1 inch custom front sway bar from Vick auto. The bushings that had the 1 inch opening that came with the kit never fit right in the factory mount. The bar would rub metal to metal. I even tried buying the yellow polly ones and they are no better. I also tried universal ones and they are way too big. The problem is that all the bushings I tried are too big and/or dont have enough material to prevent metal to metal under load. I noticed that the new 1 inch sway bar kits being sold now include new universal mounts that are flat and mount flat against the frame rail. This differs from the spaced mounts from the factory. I tried bying universal 1 inch mounts and there is not enough space to use that type of mounting system. This is because the flat mount causes interference with the thermo fan sensor in the radiator and the bottom neck to mount the radiator hose.

I called Vicks to see if the new sway bars have a different design which allows the flat mount style. They said there is no difference and that they have never heard of the interference issue I describe before. Has anyone else had this issue? If so what did you do to solve the problem? Is there a supplier that has custom spaced inner mounts that is designed to fit the universal 1 inch bushings?

[fiat218]

Just my opinion. VICK'S is not the place to buy anything

[vandor]

Yes, the bushings have always been too big to fit in the stock center brackets. I use a bench grinder to reduce the outside size so they fit better. The swaybar should have come with some washers so one can space apart the upper and lower brackets.

[So Cal Mark]

the Addco bars come with the center brackets, the outer brackets have to be re-used

[Sparky]

I'm still shopping around for a spider so I can't take any measurents, but if you want to make some dimensions sketches, I could design and machine some better mounts. The 1" front swaybar is definitely already earmarked on my overhaul budget.