while changing oil today, noticed that the R front sway bar was no longer attached to the lower A arm. Looks like the bolt fatigued/ failed. And ok this is on my 96 Sonoma, but there are many knowledgeable folks on this forum and this is likely a generic kind of problem.
Question,, it looks as if the now non attached end of the sway bar is about an inch up and an inch in board, from the location where it would intersect if there was a mounting bolt. Assuming I can find the proper bolt/bushing, is this a repair a willing worker can do? How would one go about getting the mounting end of the sway bar to align with the mounting bolt, I don't see me bending that way bar, or is there that much play in the through holes?

thanks

You can stick a bar underneath the sway bar and it has play up and down its junk. sometimes sway bars can be a pain to get back where they are supposed to go. Easiest way to get it to go back is to loosen all of the bolts holding the sway bar in and then get your damaged part fixed and then while still loosened start tightening everything in a criss crossed pattern being sure to get even pressure. I'm not sure if this will help or not.. not being able to see a picture or anything, but I've repaired many sway bar links before and this is the easiest way to do it. And this is something you can do real easily yourself too.

Sway bar link

$10.54
http://www2.partstrain.com/store/?Ntt=S ... 4294964230

_________________
-- Mister Perkins --

Pictures of my truck
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3257131p

changed out the sway bar links this past weekend, not difficult at all, only tricky part was, once the bushings were stacked up with the link through the sway bar, there was not enough thread protruding for the nut to grab on to. So I removed the top bushing, and with a washer on the top side of the sway bar ran the nut down, then ran a nylon strap around the sway bar and lower a arm to hold the sway bar down, removed the nut, reinstalled the bushing and washer and nut,, removed the nylon strap,,,job was done.

yeah I was just going to tell you that I replaced a sway bar link friday on a fellas Sonoma (same as yours) at my work. I found that using a pry bar on the sway bar under the frame worked well to pull the bolt through to get the nut on the top. Your right though, it was a tight fit. Cheers

_________________
-- Mister Perkins --

Pictures of my truck
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3257131p