I just installed a 19 mm sway bar. It uses the same arms and drop bars as the stock 17mm. I ordered new 19 mm bushings from Pelican. The old ones off the 17mm bar where a soft rubber with a slit in it. The ones for the 19mm where VERY hard and had no slit. I used a thin blad hack saw and cut a slit in it. I got the 19mm installed but it is VERY hard to turn... Like a good size cresent wrench and a little force it will move. I can rotate it all the way around. I used a little WD40 in there and that helped but it is still tight... I didnt know if the weight of a 2000 lbs car made a difference or not and figured I should ask.

Let me know what you all think.

Eric

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They're too tight if it takes a wrench to turn 'em.

You want the energy from one side to transmit instantly to the other side. Anything that decreases the force (friction will convert it into heat) or makes it take more time, or both, is bad.

Ideally, they should be free to rotate, but not loose enough to rattle. If they bound ever so slightly I wouldn't worry because they will wear-in and get a little looser.

Yours need some sanding/reaming to be free.

Good Luck

Yep, they need to turn like butter.
Get a caliper and measure inside and outside diameters and then put a sanding drum in the bushing to get it to +.002 get a greese fitting and install on each side.

WD-40 isn't really a lubricant that lasts long enough. I use silicone grease on all hard bushings. After you fix the problem grease them with something. Any grease is better than none, but you can get Super Lube at the hardware store, it works well.

Glad to know all this stuff. = ) I will get on getting the problem resolved.

One more question.... Does it matter what end of the sway bar is where? I know the front torsion bars are directional and side-anl. Are sway bars? = )

Thanks again.

Eric

It doesn't matter. They are stressed in both (rotational) directions and, when they are adjusted properly, there is no preload.

The stock bushing carriers are tapered and are designed to tightly capture the oem rubber bushings around the bar.
Just like with the factory rubber a-arm bushings, the thought was to isolate the occupants from vibrations, etc. by using rubber.
The rubber deflects when the shaft rotates, allowing the forces to be transmitted to the other side, or through the torsion bar, and when the suspension returns to neutral the bushing unloads too.
Anytime one switches to hard bushings the shaft held within needs to move freely without any significant resistance or there will be unpleasant feelings transmitted to the occupants. There may even be forces transmitted into the chassis that have a long-term effect of cracking around the mounts.
Another negative effect from tightly fitting hard bushings is squeeks.
It is also very difficult to do accurate alignments when the bushings resist free motion of the suspension.

Thats a lot of porosity in those welds.
It would have been much better if you solved the problem causing the porosity before doing all that work.
Preparation is everything.

Porosity?? Penetration is not even close. Those beads are laying on top with no undercut. Those are not good welds period!! Dirty metal and insufficient heat.