2007 Ford Ranger with 27mm Sway Bar Bushing Front 4 Piece Suspension Kit TRQ PSA73518

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In this video, we're going to show you how to replace the stabilizer bar links on this Ford Explorer Sport Trac. It's the same process for many of the Explorer Sport Tracs, as well as the regular Explorer Mountaineer, Ranger, etc. We show you on the right side, but the driver side is the same procedure. Items that you'll need for this repair are new stabilizer links from 1AAuto.com, a jack, 16mm and 18mm sockets with two ratchets or wrenches, and you'll need a reciprocating saw if your link is as rusty as ours is, and then some penetrating oil.

Our truck was making some rattling noises, and we can feel a little bit of clunking in the steering wheel. Coming under here, this is your stabilizer bar, and it's linked to the control arm with these links. When you grab hold and shake them, they should be nice and firm. This isn't the best shot, but as you can see, as we grab hold and shake it, it'll move around some. That's causing some of our clunking and rattling.

This repair, actually you can keep the wheel on. I just have it off to make it a lot easier to film. What I've got here is you can see that the lift is underneath the frame so it's supporting it, and I just have the jack under here to put the weight back on so that you can see I can grab hold of the link and move it back and forth. That's how it would be if it was just sitting on its tire as well, but this makes it a lot easier to video.
We use some penetrating oil and spray the top of the shaft. You'll see that was kind of a [mute 00:01:51] point. 16mm socket on the bottom and then an 18mm socket and ratchet on top. You're going to see it just breaks apart, which is actually a good thing.

I can see the condition is really bad, but I'm still going to make a half-hearted attempt. Spray the stud down with some penetrating oil. Then I take a few whacks at it with a hammer, but it makes no movement at all. I'm going to bring in the big guns. Lock onto that top stud with some locking pliers to hold it from spinning. Then, a reciprocating saw, and I'll fast-forward here as we cut through down at the other bushing. There you go. Your old one is out.

Take your new link. Just remove the nut, remove the top two bushings and washers, the shaft, and one of the bottom bushings and washers. You just now have the shaft and one washer and bushing at the bottom. Put it up through, put one bushing and washer with the washer up on, and then put the sleeve on. Jacking up the side you're working on and letting the wheel hang down some will help you get extra space. Now put the washer close to the sleeve and put the bushing on. The little step should go into the sway bar, then push the link up through. Put the top bushing on, then the washer, and the nut. I just jacked the suspension up a little bit more. If you're not taking the wheel off, you would let it down a little bit just so you can get things together and thread the nut on.

You want to replace the other side. You can see I've replaced it. I did it with the wheel on, and I've also tightened it up. Now you want to tighten them up. The new links may be a slightly different size. I think it's a 16mm link and a 17mm nut. When you tighten them up, you basically want to tighten them, make sure that the vehicle is in the correct ride position. Again, if you're just doing it with the wheels on, it's a little simpler, because with the wheels on it's in the correct ride position. You're basically tightening it up until the bushings push out enough so that they're the same kind of size or diameter as the metal washers. If you do end up taking your wheel off, make sure you reinstall it and torque the lug nuts to 100 foot-pounds each.

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In this video, we're going to be working with our 2006 Ford Explorer. We're going to show you how to remove and replace your vehicle's sway bar link in the front. If you like this video, please click subscribe. We have a ton more information on this and many other vehicles. If you need these parts for your car, you can follow the link down into the description over to 1AAuto.com. Here are the items you'll need for this repair.

Using a 19mm socket and a breaker bar, loosen the lug nuts on your tire. Raise and support your vehicle. We're doing this on a lift to make it easier to show you what's going on, but this job can be done at home on a jack and jack stands. Finish removing your lug nuts. You should be able to do this by hand at this point but you can use a ratchet if you need to. You can then remove your wheel and tire.

It may be a good idea to apply some penetrating oil to whatever parts you're going to be working with. Put a 17mm wrench on the nut on the top side of your sway bar link and brace it against the frame of the vehicle. You can then use a 16mm socket and ratchet on the bottom to loosen it. The sway bar link on these vehicles is essentially a series of bushing and washers with a sleeve all held together by one long bolt, as opposed to being a one-piece unit like some other vehicles.

You can see ours is pretty rough here, because there's usually not this much slack. That's actually what your bushing is supposed to look like on all four pieces, one on each side. You can see the old ones are worn down or cut there. It looks like they've actually fallen off over time. Once the nut's out, you can try to remove the bolt from the center of the sway bar link. This can be pretty difficult, so if it doesn't come out by hand, don't be afraid to get on there and give it a good hit with a hammer. The sway bar link will disassemble just like that when you pull it out, so just make sure you have all the old bushing material and all the old washers off of it.

Now you sort of need to build the sway bar link into the truck, so we'll start with a washer and then a bushing. We'll go up through the control arm, install a bushing with the tapered end down, followed by another washer, the sleeve, a washer with the cup end facing up, and a bushing with the tapered end facing up. We'll go through the sway bar, install another bushing. You may need to use a screw jack or floor jack to jack up the control arm to get enough slack on that bolt to install the sway bar link. Then install the washer and a nut and tighten your new hardware down. You'll want a 17mm wrench on the nut and a 16mm socket and ratchet on the bolt end. Just tighten that up until it compresses the bushings so you know that everything's nice and tight and there's no slop in there to make any noise when you go over bumps. Once that's down tight, you can lower the weight off of the screw jack or floor jack.

Reinstall the wheel and tire onto your hub. It's easiest to put a lug nut inside of the 19mm socket to start it onto the studs. Get all five of these down as tight as you can by hand, and then we'll torque the wheel once there's some weight on it. Lower the vehicle back down and put partial weight onto the wheel and tire. This means that you may have your jack or lift under the vehicle. Get the tire to touch and let the vehicle come down some without allowing it completely off of the lift or jack. Torque your lug nuts to 100 foot-pounds in a cross pattern.

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