Sorry no pictures, but I have had a clunking on the front drivers side of the car for a while now. I finally got tired of it and started poking around down there to see what was going on. I grabbed onto the end link and pushed and pulled, though I couldn't feel any play I saw that the rubber boot on the bottom knuckle was torn. I settled on this being the source of the noise. I ordered the $30 a piece Moog's over the $10 a piece OEM end links for no other reason than the fact that I could get them in 2 days and get this thing fixed.

First I have to say the Moog end links are substantial, there has to be twice the amount of metal in the Moog's over the OEM's. They are twice as thick which means they are much more stiff. I wasn't sure how this would affect the handling and ride of the car but I have to say I am impressed. They also have grease fittings and the ball joints are fully enclosed in metal where the OEM's have a bunch of plastic crap on the ends.

Once I got the drivers side link off I could feel some play in it so I knew I was on the right track. The install is pretty easy but can be a bit time consuming due to the location of the nut on the bottom of the end links where they attach to the sway bar. With my brother-in-laws help and all the right tools it was about 1.5 hours for both sides while taking turns wrenching and drinking a beer. Nuts are 21mm, torque spec's are 95ftlbs. If you have an impact gun you can get the top nuts on and off pretty quick. You will need to use a open ended wrench for the bottom which takes a while. You'll need an 18mm wrench to hold the Mooks while putting the 21mm nut back on. On the OEM's you will need a 10mm socket to hold the end of the bolt while you use a 21mm wrench to take off the nut. I was not able to fit a torque wrench on the bottom nut so I just tightened it as much as I could with a box end wrench and the limited space and leverage I had to work with.

Hows it drive? The noise is gone, thank god! I will update after I have a chance to hit the clover leafs to and from work, but it feels good and it seems that the nose doesn't dip/roll as much as on the stock links. This makes sense because the stock links are so thin you can pull on them like a piano string so they are flexing before they flex the sway bar. The Moog's are much stiffer, there is very little if any flex in them and all that energy is getting transferred into the sway bar quickly. There is no changed in ride quality, this does not affect the rate of the spring or shock so there should be no change. I have the adjustable shocks "MKS" and when they are on the softest ride I feel like there is far less roll when moving through turns quickly. Looking forward to the drive to and from work tomorrow in sport mode with the dampeners at their stiffest setting.

Scott

I lean towards MC for struts/strut bearings, but most other suspension/steering components, going Moog is an easy decision.

Moog is top quality stuff i use them when i can..thanks for the write up

$8.45 OEM VS $23.79 MOOG is definitely quite a difference in price.

I have to do this soon as well... Ive got clunky.

Time to pool the pennies.

My right front sway bar end link appears to have snapped (the end link is rotating off-axis of the fastening stud). It definitely looks like the bottom nut is going to be a PITA to torque. Were you able to stick a torque wrench on that nut eventually?

Was it easy to remove the factory nuts from the endlinks? Is there anything spinning as you are trying to remove the nuts? The way my endlink snapped makes it look like I'm going to have to hold part of the endlink with a vise grip plier.

According to Chip from Powergrid, he's a big proponent of the THK joints on his Powergrid endlinks. Ford uses THK joints on some of their OEM endlinks: revised 07-up GT500/S197 front endlinks and the rear endlinks on our SHO's come to mind. These are supposed to be very durable and last a life time. The GM engineers and race division that worked on the Cobalt track cars also swear by the THK joints which is how I learned about them in the first place. They also didn't recommend the Moogs because the joints weren't as good as THKs - but I'm tempted to go with Moogs as they're only under $30 each versus $80 each for the Powergrids.

The Motorcraft replacements might be a different design from the factory stock endlinks, the new Motorcrafts carry a 2016 Ford engineering part number and are made in Japan. The factory end links still have plastic bearing caps though.

The first one is the passenger side front link that I suspect is broken. The second pic is of the driver side.

It looks like you need to hold it with a open end while at the same time using a ratchet to remove the bolt.  Z
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtHqtAS7gdY#]! No longer available]! No longer available

Or if it gives enough resistance, a Sawzall will make such resistance futile.  Many have had to resort to it on the Edge.

Does it look broken to anyone else?
Has anyone installed the Powergrids on their SHO?

After talking to some of the guys that set up the Cobalt road race car, I'm hesitant to try the Moogs or any non-THK endlinks. I'm not sure why Ford chose the THK's for the rear SHO endlinks and some crap for the front.

Quote from: metroplex on February 18, 2017, 06:32:54 PM
Does it look broken to anyone else?
Has anyone installed the Powergrids on their SHO?

After talking to some of the guys that set up the Cobalt road race car, I'm hesitant to try the Moogs or any non-THK endlinks. I'm not sure why Ford chose the THK's for the rear SHO endlinks and some crap for the front.

It certainly looks like its "shot" and here's mine on the drivers side.  Z

The bottom of my front links all looked fine, but the link at the strut on the passenger side was the one that looks broken. I couldn't even see it until I had the car on ramps to inspect underneath.

If you get a chance, check out the stock rear sway bar links - those look like the THK ball joints that Powergrid uses for their endlinks, and the revised GT500 endlinks as well:

http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=3098862&cc=1433389