Hellwig Sway Bars

[setconstr]

I purchased front and rear Hellwig sway bars haven't installed them yet on my 2018 Tahoe lowered on bell tech 2" drop spindles and 4" in the rear has anyone done this and did they have any problems with rubbing ? do I need different links ? just trying to get whatever I need before hand...Thanks

 

[iamdub]

I purchased front and rear Hellwig sway bars haven't installed them yet on my 2018 Tahoe lowered on bell tech 2" drop spindles and 4" in the rear has anyone done this and did they have any problems with rubbing ? do I need different links ? just trying to get whatever I need before hand...Thanks

You'll need shorter end links front and rear. With that 4" rear drop, you didn't get shorter end links for the stock sway bar? I always thought that, with a 4" rear drop, shorter and offset links were required. I have the DJM offset links.

The idea is for the bars to be as parallel to the ground as possible. I just went through all this on mine. Made shorter links by replacing the bolts with shorter Grade 8 ones from Home Depot. But I have almost twice the drop amount in the front as you. When I first dropped mine, I installed Moog K700528. They're 1.5" shorter than stock, but were still way too long. I ended up with 5" bolts for my drop. I think 6" would be fine for yours if you make your own. Do you still have the stock end links in the front? You might could get that Moog kit (you'll need two- one for each side), trim the spacer (thin aluminum) and just replace the bolts with some 6" ones from the hardware store.

BUT, in researching this for you, I just realized something I wish I had known. There's the Moog K700528, K700527, K700526 and K700525. Each are the same, but progressively shorter. I'm betting the K700525 or '526 would've been perfect for me. So, the '527 might be ideal for you as a direct bolt-in solution. You might have to find out the critical dimensions directly from Moog. I looked around online a little but didn't find any of that info.

 

[slupie]

I have the Belltech 2/3 drop and I rub on the factory swaybar with OEM 22" snowflakes. Hellwigs are in the garage waiting for a break in the weather in the land of rust and corruption.

 

[Danyi2170]

You don’t need anything. Hellwigs come with all hardware. Rears include adjustable endlinks.

 

[Doubeleive]

You don’t need anything. Hellwigs come with all hardware. Rears include adjustable endlinks.

yes he does, he needs the front end links, the rear ones that come with the hellwigs are adjustable, the front are not.
o/p you need a set of mevotech ttx or the autozone branded ones which are the same design as the mevotech.
you will still need to cut the center spacer but that is ok because the the bolt and nut is threaded from end to end so you can make them as short as you need to.

 

[Danyi2170]

Ok then. I’m lowered and have aftermarket sway bars by Hotchkis and no modifications were needed to the front. Especially no cutting of anything. Got my Hellwig replacements about to be installed next week. I don’t need anything. Not saying you’re wrong. But I didn’t. And before doing my research on lowering i’ve never seen people talk about doing front sway bar modifications. Only the rear needing shorter or adjustable endlinks. So to the OP I guess it’s up to you. The following picture is not from my ride but another member online lowered with Hellwigs. No modifications were done. Again not saying you’re wrong but I didn’t need to do any modifications to the front for them to fit.

 

[setconstr]

I think that MrMonte has the same set up on Denali and it looks like he was able to just bolt them on.

Wife surprised me with some swaybars for Christmas

Been almost 3 years & 70K miles driven since installing the Hellwig swaybars and I still feel they are the 1st upgrade to do to these vehicles. With almost 140K miles on my Yukon it is running & driven better than new. The Hellwig swaybars are still doing great and I do enjoy the curvy...

www.tahoeyukonforum.com

 

[MrMonte]

I have put 1,000 miles on my BellTech 2/3 drop with Hellwig swaybars without any issues. The rear endlinks on the Hellwig swaybars are adjustable. When you assemble the endlinks pay attention to the diameter of metal sleeves.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

Ok then. I’m lowered and have aftermarket sway bars by Hotchkis and no modifications were needed to the front. Especially no cutting of anything. Got my Hellwig replacements about to be installed next week. I don’t need anything. Not saying you’re wrong. But I didn’t. And before doing my research on lowering i’ve never seen people talk about doing front sway bar modifications. Only the rear needing shorter or adjustable endlinks. So to the OP I guess it’s up to you. The following picture is not from my ride but another member online lowered with Hellwigs. No modifications were done. Again not saying you’re wrong but I didn’t need to do any modifications to the front for them to fit.

I may be wrong, but looking at the photo with the truck on the lift, it would appear to me that the sway bars are not going to be even close to level/horizontal with the floor, when lowered to the floor. The overall effectiveness of sway bars diminish quickly, when they are not horizontal to the floor.

 

[slupie]

You'll need shorter end links front and rear. With that 4" rear drop, you didn't get shorter end links for the stock sway bar? I always thought that, with a 4" rear drop, shorter and offset links were required. I have the DJM offset links.

The idea is for the bars to be as parallel to the ground as possible. I just went through all this on mine. Made shorter links by replacing the bolts with shorter Grade 8 ones from Home Depot. But I have almost twice the drop amount in the front as you. When I first dropped mine, I installed Moog K700528. They're 1.5" shorter than stock, but were still way too long. I ended up with 5" bolts for my drop. I think 6" would be fine for yours if you make your own. Do you still have the stock end links in the front? You might could get that Moog kit (you'll need two- one for each side), trim the spacer (thin aluminum) and just replace the bolts with some 6" ones from the hardware store.

BUT, in researching this for you, I just realized something I wish I had known. There's the Moog K700528, K700527, K700526 and K700525. Each are the same, but progressively shorter. I'm betting the K700525 or '526 would've been perfect for me. So, the '527 might be ideal for you as a direct bolt-in solution. You might have to find out the critical dimensions directly from Moog. I looked around online a little but didn't find any of that info.

Here is a link to Moog sway bar end link chart, it lists the distance between the bushings. https://www.moog-suspension-parts.com/universal-sway-bar-end-links.asp

 

[Doubeleive]

Ok then. I’m lowered and have aftermarket sway bars by Hotchkis and no modifications were needed to the front. Especially no cutting of anything. Got my Hellwig replacements about to be installed next week. I don’t need anything. Not saying you’re wrong. But I didn’t. And before doing my research on lowering i’ve never seen people talk about doing front sway bar modifications. Only the rear needing shorter or adjustable endlinks. So to the OP I guess it’s up to you. The following picture is not from my ride but another member online lowered with Hellwigs. No modifications were done. Again not saying you’re wrong but I didn’t need to do any modifications to the front for them to fit.

your sway bar looks tilted up in the photo and it is not even on the ground which raises it up even more.
but anyway how much the end links need to be trimmed or not trimmed can depend on the drop used, my 18 had a 4/6 and I basically had to cut the front end link in 1/2 and had to modify it by drilling a hole in the control arm.
now it is lifted 4.5 and I was able to use regular length end links because the lift is designed to keep the drivetrain & suspension in the correct orientation

 

[CMoore711]

@Danyi2170 Did you get the Hotchkis 2292 Front & Rear sway bar kit? That's what I got and installed and the kit came with new front sway bar end links for the front sway bar that were slightly shorter than stock. Maybe that's why you recall "not needing anything" additional in regards to hardware? Then for the rear bars I was already using the DJM rear offset sway bar end links, so I reused those with the Hotchkis rear sway bar.

@Danyi2170 Your pic above with the Hellwig front bar looks like you re-used the OEM stock front end links? If so, I'm somewhat surprised those plastic things haven't snapped in half with the additional stiffness from the Hellwig bar.

Somewhat off topic; @Danyi2170 Very interested in what differences if any in suspension feel and body roll you notice going from the Hotchkis bars to the Hellwigs?

 

[Danyi2170]

your sway bar looks tilted up in the photo and it is not even on the ground which raises it up even more.
but anyway how much the end links need to be trimmed or not trimmed can depend on the drop used, my 18 had a 4/6 and I basically had to cut the front end link in 1/2 and had to modify it by drilling a hole in the control arm.
now it is lifted 4.5 and I was able to use regular length end links because the lift is designed to keep the drivetrain & suspension in the correct orientation

That is why I replied that he doesn’t need anything. Because he is using drop spindles, he will get less than 2 inch drop. And that isn’t my car. It’s another members. I was simply showing you that you don’t need modifications to install the Hellwig.

 

[Danyi2170]

@Danyi2170 Did you get the Hotchkis 2292 Front & Rear sway bar kit? That's what I got and installed and the kit came with new front sway bar end links for the front sway bar that were slightly shorter than stock. Maybe that's why you recall "not needing anything" additional in regards to hardware? Then for the rear bars I was already using the DJM rear offset sway bar end links, so I reused those with the Hotchkis rear sway bar.

@Danyi2170 Your pic above with the Hellwig front bar looks like you re-used the OEM stock front end links? If so, I'm somewhat surprised those plastic things haven't snapped in half with the additional stiffness from the Hellwig bar.

Somewhat off topic; @Danyi2170 Very interested in what differences if any in suspension feel and body roll you notice going from the Hotchkis bars to the Hellwigs?

I got the same kit. I didn’t see any new front end links. I got everything in the picture below. No end links.

Apologies to the OP for getting conflicting answers. I will just tell you just from my experience I have drop spindles and the front did not need anything for the front sway bar to fit.

Good luck with your install which ever path you take.

 

[iamdub]

Here is a link to Moog sway bar end link chart, it lists the distance between the bushings. https://www.moog-suspension-parts.com/universal-sway-bar-end-links.asp

This is gold. Bless you!

 

[iamdub]

I think that MrMonte has the same set up on Denali and it looks like he was able to just bolt them on.

Wife surprised me with some swaybars for Christmas

Been almost 3 years & 70K miles driven since installing the Hellwig swaybars and I still feel they are the 1st upgrade to do to these vehicles. With almost 140K miles on my Yukon it is running & driven better than new. The Hellwig swaybars are still doing great and I do enjoy the curvy...

www.tahoeyukonforum.com

Dammit! I completely disregarded the fact that your front is dropped with spindles. You can ignore everything I said about the front end links. Spindles don't affect any of that. Although, I'd strongly suggest replacing the stock ones (if still present) with any of the upgraded aftermarket options. The standard OEM direct replacements from Moog (thermoplastic or polyurethane) would be fine. They're too cheap not to, they'll complement the new bar and you'll have them taken apart for the install, anyway.

The rear is still a concern if you have an actual 4" drop. 3" is kinda the limit to not needing the offset links. But it's all still wrong if you have stock-length links on a drop. The bar angle being wrong/bad is what might be keeping the passenger side of the bar from interfering with the panhard mount.

 

[slupie]

This is gold. Bless you!

I'll do you one better, if you type in the Moog part number on Advanced Auto Parts site it will give you the bolt length and spacer length, for example k700528, https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/moog-stabilizer-bar-link-kit-k700528/10575134-P

 

[MrMonte]

I may be wrong, but looking at the photo with the truck on the lift, it would appear to me that the sway bars are not going to be even close to level/horizontal with the floor, when lowered to the floor. The overall effectiveness of sway bars diminish quickly, when they are not horizontal to the floor.

Once on the ground I did adjust the rear swaybar endlinks to level the swaybar. The handling improvement is beyond amazing.

Here is the hardware for the Hellwig rear swaybar. As you can see there is alot of length adjustability.

I watched a Youtube video on installing these swaybars where they did use the offset endlinks & also drilled new holes for the swaybars bushings. I didn't have to do any of that. Everything just bolted in except I had to swap out shorter rods for the leveling sensors.

 

[iamdub]

I'll do you one better, if you type in the Moog part number on Advanced Auto Parts site it will give you the bolt length and spacer length, for example k700528, https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/moog-stabilizer-bar-link-kit-k700528/10575134-P

I did find the bolt and spacer length on one site last night. But, the center-to-center of the bushing lengths is the most important and I couldn't find it. I never saw that part of Moog's site. The problem is how thick the eye end is on the upgraded bars versus the stock stuff. Also, with Moog's barrel nut, they're easier to assemble and you don't need a longer bolt. I'm considering drilling out my lower bushing and getting shorter bolts to use it. Or, since I now have access to their center-to-center dimensions, I can find a bolt-in set to suit me.

 

[slupie]

I have installed the Hellwig 7685 Front and 7740 Rear sway bars today on my 18 Suburban Premier 4 WD. It is also lowered on Belltech 1019, 2" in the front and 3" in the rear. I bought the Moog K700538 (factory length spec) front sway bar links and they are about 1" too long. I have the Moog K700532 which are exactly 1" shorter on order and will install them as soon as I have time and weather permits. In the rear the factory sway bar end link is about 8-3/4" long center to center, I set the Hellwig sway bar end links as short as they would go, about 7-3/4" and at the center hole setting they are still about 1/2" too long. I will reach out to Hellwig to see if they have shorter rear end links.