Beretta.net

My question would be... How the hell did you miss that?

I have yet to have a GM FWD that does have the end links. Always have to replace those.

So, today's tinkering took me in a few directions.

Put some brand new Moog sway bar links in the car. The old ones were completely MIA.

Swapped the factory deck to the factory deck from the Beretta GTZ. The one in the SCX was barely lighting at night. And the GTZ stereo is "nicer" factory looking too.

Put my rearview mirror hanger tab back on with an adhesive kit. Gonna let it dry over night and then put the mirror on.

Secured the headliner up back where it belongs. Was drooping after coming unglued where the overhead console is. Fixed now.

That's about it.

Pics below. Forgot the stereo pic. I'll get it later tonight or tomorrow.

Pics below are before and after sway bar link replacement. The before pics are EXACTLY as I discovered them. Non-existent,lol. One pic of one sides parts too so you can see what I put in.

DTMAce wrote:My question would be... How the hell did you miss that?

My answer would be simple. I've driven this car very little or paid it hardly ANY attention since getting it. Been busy or disinterested of late.

I've put MAYBE 100-150 miles on it and have not been under it THOROUGHLY until yesterday and today.

A better question would be how Geoff missed it too! He put 3000 miles on this car , with apparently, no end links! And he even changed the tires around a few times! Slacker! (j/p Geoff, you know that)

Seriously , between those and the main trans mount missing the nut entirely , I went over the WHOLE front undercarriage and brakes today with a fine tooth comb. Rear I gave a cursory inspection too. Nothing else seems amiss or jumped out at me. SO far....

MPB: True, most cars I buy need the sway bar end links replaced due to them being busted or worn out. They're not usually Houdini!

Maybe they busted off and fell out and he never noticed, has happened to me before, thought someone stole my 20 year old endlinks for about a minute lol.

Side note, do you always tighten them down till you run out of thread? Just curious.

Chad91GTZ wrote:Maybe they busted off and fell out and he never noticed, has happened to me before, thought someone stole my 20 year old endlinks for about a minute lol.

Side note, do you always tighten them down till you run out of thread? Just curious.

ROFL! That's what I thought. "Who stole my end links and my trans mount nut , goddamit....."

Yes, to the endlinks question. You're supposed to. Why?

I never do. I've always heard that, but I haven't ever read it in a service manual that you are actually supposed to. I load up the front suspension, as in the car on the ground, then torque them to 7 ft lbs.

They don't seem to wear out as fast.

I "load" the suspension with a jack under the ball joint to "compress" the CA up and tighten. If you don't tighten them all the way you will have "gaps" between the bushings and sway bar and bushings and CA. Kind of eliminates the effectiveness of the links if you don't install them properly. The reason they probably "last longer" for you your way is because you're not actually USING the bushings as they're intended. In other words they're not taking the load they were designed to. So of course the part will last longer. It will just be a lot less effective.

Also, I don't know what brand you buy, but the nut should be an "oval" nut. You know what I mean. Like a strut nut. It's slightly oval'd to sort of "lock it down" as you tighten it. So, since 7 ft lbs isn't crap, you're probably NOT tightening them tight enough. They require a little more torque (just a little, not a ton) when dealing with oval'd nuts. <<--- ROFL, insert joke here....

There's a LOT of things that aren't in the service manual,lol. You learn them throughout the years with experience. That's why I love it when some douche bag counter jockey at a parts store that is "ASE Certified" through a paper test and NO experience tries to tell me the "right way" to do things or that I'm "wrong" because "I've taken the courses sir, I know"... ROFL. Yeah... They don't know crap.

Not directed at you Chad. Just an observation, that last paragraph...

They aren't THAT loose. When you tighten them down all the way, the bushings seem to actually bulge out to a point beyond where it looks like they are supposed to even be, to me anyway.

I load with the car on the ground so its at ride height/weight, then as I said 7 ft lbs. It doesn't sound like a lot, but its actually about an inch of thread. It just feels better than reefing it all the way down. IDK, thats why I asked. And I always use locktite on items that get cut off the car anyway, like rusty sway bar links. lol. If I can be pissed to find the dremel, I will use it, otherwise I blow them apart with the torch.




oh, and I'm ASE certified, lol. B

LoL. It's all good man. I know what you meant. But yeah, that's the way I've done them for years.

I don't have access to the beretta's info, but this is for the 98 n-body.

GM wrote:Install the stabilizer link nut (4) attaching the stabilizer link to the stabilizer link bolt (5). Tighten
Tighten the nut until the nut meets the end of the bolt threads for torque value. Tighten the nut to 17 N·m (13 lb ft).

At least yours just fell off. I had one of the effers break and bend its way on top of my axle, ripping the inner boot to crap

Cliff8928 wrote:I don't have access to the beretta's info, but this is for the 98 n-body.

GM wrote:Install the stabilizer link nut (4) attaching the stabilizer link to the stabilizer link bolt (5). Tighten
Tighten the nut until the nut meets the end of the bolt threads for torque value. Tighten the nut to 17 N·m (13 lb ft).

Thanks Cliff. I think the sway bar (im almost positive it is) is bent, which is why its bulging so much. Idk.

Barry wrote:At least yours just fell off. I had one of the effers break and bend its way on top of my axle, ripping the inner boot to crap

I've had that happen too. With the lovely PLASTIC stabilizer links that attach to the struts on a '95 Taurus I owned. Shortly after buying it, I noticed what sounded like CV Joint noise and bobble on the hwy. Looked under it and the plastic link had broken in half , cut the CV boot like a knife and spilled all it's grease. CV Joint was toasted. Carnage. Talk about shitty design. To be truthful, the SCX links ride too close to the CV boot for my comfort too.