Anti roll bar drop links question

alcyon

Active Member
Jun 15, 2017
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Kuala Lumpur
Recently I have been having thud noises from my aftermarket arb links so looking to replace them. I stupidly threw away the oem ones.
1. Were the oem ones plastic for both front and rear?
2. What are the correct lengths for the front and rear? Is the rear shorter than front ?

Rock auto is giving me conflicting measurements.
Some front end listings are showing 111mm center to center , some 132mm.
The rears seem to be consistent enough at 105mm.
I want a silent link. Would it be better to go for polymer/rubber ball joint links or metal ?
 

te72

Classifieds Moderator
Staff member
Mar 26, 2006
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I forget the measurements, it has been nearly a decade since I was messing with all that stuff under the car. I'd recommend using a ball joint style end link. Heim links / rose joints are going to wear out sooner than later and will make all sorts of awful noises. There's a reason you don't see them on production cars.

I seem to recall them being plastic front and rear though.

While you're in there, check your bushings out. I had developed a weird clunk in the front end of my car, thought it was a bad end link. I'd jack up one side of the car, clunk. Turns out, the passenger side steering rack bushing had decided to tear itself in half...
 
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Asterix

Lurker of Power
Mar 31, 2005
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Cars before November 1987 had metal bar links front and rear. After that, everyone got plastic links in the rear to keep the tabs on the arms from breaking. Everyone always had metal links in the front.

Someday I may get to measuring my stock front links for you. I haven't had a rear bar for decades.

The best links are the stock ball joint style, and you can still buy them from Toyota, 48820-24010 $64ea. A long time ago, I tried spherical bearing rod ends for about a month, then went back because of the noise.
 
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alcyon

Active Member
Jun 15, 2017
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Kuala Lumpur
Cars before November 1987 had metal bar links front and rear. After that, everyone got plastic links in the rear to keep the tabs on the arms from breaking. Everyone always had metal links in the front.

Someday I may get to measuring my stock front links for you. I haven't had a rear bar for decades.

The best links are the stock ball joint style, and you can still buy them from Toyota, 48820-24010 $64ea. A long time ago, I tried spherical bearing rod ends for about a month, then went back because of the noise.
I bought the links with the part number you gave and I was able to find them locally. Of course they were listed for the toyota Wish in my country, which far outnumber the MA70 supra. They work great.
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