But my H&R bar was making that awful rattling noise, and I finally got it up in the air on a rack that keeps the weight of the car on all 4 wheels and simply tightened the bolts up where the bracket attaches to the frame. After doing that I have no rattles at all on the car. Its a pleasure to drive again. That being said I am going to look into those part numbers.
Yep, that's basically the cause of the situation. The main cause for ANY rattling (in 99.9% of the cases we hear about) are the bolts not tight enough. This is ESPECIALLY true for the bolts that hold the upper rod ends to the crossmember brackets. When we weld the brackets up, the ears on it bend out slightly, which is great for ease of assembly. BUT, if you don't tighten the **** out of the bolts, there will be a slight clearance on the sides of the rod end to the bracket. All it takes is .001 and it will rattle. It will seem like the bolts are plenty tight, but you have to do extra there to bend the ears back straight & get them to clamp securely. After seeing this thread, I will have to do another install myself & actually get a torque spec for those bolts to ensure no rattles. My guess is after re-installing other rod ends, you probably bent them in the rest of the way & got rid of the rattle, and probably didn't have anything to do with the rod end themselves.
After 4+ years of selling these & LOTS of positive feedback, we have only heard of 1 person that thought the rod ends were worn out (from one of the very first bars we sold). I haven't ever seen any of our "worn out" rod ends if there actually are any out there. We buy the same top quality FK rod ends, but with a self-lubricating race so they do last a long time & don't rattle. They are the same rod ends we have been using for several years now, and are the precision 4340 Chromoly ones for heavy duty racing use.
Getting ones with a grease fitting is NOT recommended, because it lowers the actual rating of the rod end quite a bit. Anyone with our bar & rod ends can spray all the ends & hardware with WD-40 from time to time to flush off any dirt and help protect & lubricate them. We open up the packages and spray them down & make sure the balls are tight (but not too tight) before they get packaged up (like anyone else takes time to do stuff like that). We actually order them in a specific tightness (or fit) so they will move somewhat easy to transfer weight & not bind up, but also tight enough not to rattle for years. They also make seals that can be put on the sides to help keep junk out of them, but only knowing of possibly 1 set wear out in 4+ years, I didn't figure it was worth mentioning or offering. That's why we don't offer our rod ends as a separate item to order or replace, haven't had the need for it.
As mentioned in a post above, we can't stress the importance of letting us know if you have any issues with our products. 99.99% of the time it's a very easy fix & something might have got overlooked or done differently, and you shouldn't need to go and replace or buy anything else. We try to help when we can, but if no one lets us know, we can't do a thing about it. If ANYONE has our "old" rod ends out there that think they are worn out & had to replace them, I would REALLY like to see them. Might even give a T-shirt in trade for shipping expense etc.
I will personally make an effort to put an exact torque spec on that & make not to use WD-40 a few times a year to help with this issue. Basically the bolts we use there are 1/2" grade 8 with an all metal lock nut, and can take 90 ft/lbs oiled up or 120 ft/lbs dry. We spray them with WD-40 to help protect them & tighten up easier, so would "guess" 90-100 would be close. Doubt anyone with any rattles got close to that figure, especially with open end wrenches. Used to use the term "insane tight" for bolts like that & when you couldn't get in there with a socket
Just hard to keep up with everything & make updates to all the stuff at the same time. But when it will help you guys out, it needs to get done one way or the other. Just updated the sheet on the extra spacer washers to help make that easier to understand, since the picture was making it more confusing than it needed to be. Needed to do that for over a year now, but finally took time to do it after a couple customers let us know about it.
If you got any rattles, stick a torque wrench on the 1/2" bolts holding the upper rod ends to the crossmember brackets, and take them up to 80-90 and see if that doesn't fix it. I have broke the 1/2" bolts at well over 200 ft/lbs testing if the ends of the swaybar tubing would crush, and they didn't move at all
I have several H&R products on my car and the quality is top notch, but what about their rod ends?...Maybe they're from another source, but I think they're not up to par with the rest of their products.
What Brand and where did you get the new Rod ends?
