So, when the rubber gets old and brittle on the front sway bar bushings and end links, does the bar "chatter" a bit when you drive over jolts in the road? I just replaced the front shocks, but still have this chattering noise. The steering rack and tie rods are solid too. Any opinions?
It's possible, especially if they are REALLY worn, like to the point that you can grab the bar and see movement with your hands. Easily replaced with polyurethane. One of the cheapest and most cost effective upgrades there is.
You are correct that it is the rubber bushings on the links for the sway bar. I swore I had something terribly loose on the suspension until I looked carefully. It would clink and clatter when going over a good bump. Then both sides started doing it! Finally looked and saw the rubber was basically gone. What you hear is the metal cylinder bouncing up and down along the bolt that connects the sway bar to the A arm.
I haven't looked at the back, but I hear similar things there now. Except folks here said there is no rear sway bar, so something else must be loose. Need one of those round tuits though.
My 88 GT also was squirrely on the road. going over moderate rises and dips in the road would make the thing want to steer to the right and then back again. The left side set of bushings was the one that was worst and the right were probably still tight enough to give some amount of pull on the steering. Once I changed out the bushings, everything was tight as can be.
