Broken Rear Sway Bar Bracket

[GrumpyBiker]

I was reinstalling the low point drain plugs today after winterizing when I noticed a bracket hanging down on the passenger side.
Crawled around and noticed it was the sway bar bracket.
It sheared off at the top.
Hardware is all there the bracket just broke straight across at the bend.

Anyone else experience this?
Being a Ford chassis I'm guessing I can pick up the part from NAPA or a Ford dealership .
Am I wrong in that assumption?


How it's supposed to look !

[AquaMan]

Mine didn’t break, but lost a top bolt. Noticed it while getting gas and happened to look underneath for some unknown reason.

[GrumpyBiker]

The bottom bolt on the broken side is very loose .
Might have been the reason why it broke!

[Jim_bob]

There is a lot of discussion about this on IRV2.com
At a minimum, the four bolts need to be removed, cleaned and put back in with loctite. Torqued to 66 ft lb.
All of mine was loose with one bolt being close to undersize. I replaced all of the bolts but not with “Ford” bolts. You have to be careful, if I remember right, two of the replacement bolts can bottom out. I cut those two bolts to fit.

[bubbles]

This is a known Ford issue on the F53 chassis. When mine gave way Ford supplied a replacement to the repair facility. Seems the swaged nuts into the bracket give way and then back off.

[Jim G]

I had two nuts strip from the bolts. As an emergency fix I picked up
some high quality treated bolts at a John Deere dealership. When I took the
RV to a Ford dealership they told me to leave the bolts in, they were better than the OEM Ford bolts. That was two years ago and so far, so good

[GrumpyBiker]

If I went to NAPA and told them I needed the rear sway bar bracket for an F53 should I expect to get what I need ?
While I have all winter to acquire the needed items I would like to get on this before the snow flys, once it stops raining !

[Iggy]

This happened to me and I took it to a Ford dealer and they replaced under Ford warranty.
Passengers side rear.

[Grampy Dan]

I had the passenger side bracket break on the top bend the same as first posters. Took a bit to find one as only Ford can supply it, according to Napa & others.

Parts Dept at Ford in Clermont, Fl looked at it and said it looked defective but there was no offer to replace, just purchase a new one.

The top bolt was tight but the rest of the bracket was hanging loose, so can only assume the bottom bolt backed off or was never tightened properly.

2014 Georgetown 328 with 15,000 km

[GrumpyBiker]

I'm awaiting delivery of my bracket.
Had the same issue.
NAPA & Autozone couldn't pull up the part as I couldn't give them an actual Ford vehicle for their computer to search the part on.

FYI- These guys listed below have them.

FordPartsGiant.com

8U9Z-5486-A BRACKET

[Grampy Dan]

Originally Posted by Grampy Dan

I had the passenger side bracket break on the top bend the same as first posters. Took a bit to find one as only Ford can supply it, according to Napa & others.

Parts Dept at Ford in Clermont, Fl looked at it and said it looked defective but there was no offer to replace, just purchase a new one.

The top bolt was tight but the rest of the bracket was hanging loose, so can only assume the bottom bolt backed off or was never tightened properly.

2014 Georgetown 328 with 15,000 km

Had same bracket break again. Same side! The one I replaced in Florida last year. Only difference was both bolts were still in place and tight. The bracket broke on the bend on the top in same spot as before. When you look at the break it looks like where it was bent it is weakened.

Kept parts this time to show Ford warrenty.

[Jim G]

Jim Bob is right. Do not use Ford bolts, get good ones. I got mine at a John Deere dealership at the suggestion of a ford parts guy after replacing mine with ford bolts and having repeat failures.

No more problems now.