Track bar bolt

[manche75]

Is the track bar bolt a special bolt? Ive replaced my T-bar twice and it still hasnt fixed my death wobble. I discovered that the metal insert in the bushing is much larger than the bolt itself and that differance is causing the wobble. I don't know if duralast is putting the wrong insert in the bushing or what. Has anyone else run into this problem? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!! :D

[MjPioneer]

I'm not sure they exact size, sorry. Teamcherokee.com has a "track bar bolt" you could try. When I had my Rc panhard I had the same issue it made a serious clunk until I replaced it.

[manche75]

For the life of me i can't find the bolt on team cherokee. Link?

[Eagle]

The track bar bolt is metric. 12mm would be almost a half inch and I'm pretty sure it isn't that big, so I'm going to say it's a 10mm.

 

Unfortunately, a lot of American companies don't speak metric so they build stuff using what they consider to be the nearest SAE size that will work. For a sleeve, obviously to "work" means it has to be larger or the bolt won't go through. If they tried to size it for an SAE bolt, a 3/8" would be too small, so the next larger size would be 7/16" ... which is considerably larger.

[manche75]

Well the difference is considerably larger. I stuck the bolt through the bushing and there is quite a bit of play. But I'm not sure if its as big as 7/16. I'm just stumped as to what to do.

[HOrnbrod]

Aftermarket (read "offshore") trackbar bushing ID sizes vary considerably. Many require drilling out the frame mount to fit the larger trackbar bush ID. And they don't tell you that. So you have two options: 1: Get the correct OEM trackbar or equivalent that the bush ID is the same as the mounting bracket, or 2: get the metric or SAE correct bolt size to fit tightly fit your aftermarket trackbar bush then drill out the mounting bracket to fit the new bolt. #2 is not an option for moi. :D

[manche75]

Option number 2 is what i was planning if i couldnt find anything easier to do. I might order a polyurethane bushing to pop in there and see how it fits.If not ill drill the mount.

[Eagle]

Of course, if you drill the mount then you can never use a correctly-sized track bar. I'm with Hornbrod -- that's simply not an option for me. If a company can't make a part that has the correct size bushing for the application, how can I and why should I have ANY faith in the quality of the product? If it doesn't fit from the get-go, I don't want it on my truck.

[manche75]

Does anyone know where i can find the rigt size bushing?

[mvusse]

Can't add any new information here other than confirming Eagle's guess at the stock track bar bolt being 10mm.

[TrailReadyMJ]

IMO, having to drill the bracket a bit larger can actually be a good thing in some cases. This would depend on the condition of your bracket, but I've seen, and experienced, several of them wallowing out over time. Mine was this way, and drilling it to 7/16" was just enough to fix the problem. I built my trackbar, so using the correct bushing was easy ;)

 

I will also add, if you have the option to get or make a capture nut (like the stock one) it makes life much easier during installation!