Broken sway bar bracket

[csvt99]

I'll try to keep this short:

What happened:
Right rear sway bar u-bracket (holds bushing) broke while driving

History:
4 years ago-upgrade to BAT 21mm sway bar & bushings
1 year ago- boxed in subframe (welder did it), new sway bar bushings, moved brackets front a little to keep sway bar from rubbing against sub frame.
For a while now I've had a creak in the sus. back there, and I thought the new bushings (well lubed) and adjustment would fix it...noise did not stop, until this morning when the bracket broke.

Question:
Can I get stronger brackets anywhere or should I just go with the stock ones again?

 

[KingpinSVT]

Makes me glad I got the updated brackets from Bradness instead of keeping the stock ones

Bradness has said to me, however, that he has used the BAT swaybar with the stock brackets (with the boxed mounts) for a long time without issues. He seems to think the only "must upgrade brackets" sway bar is the Aussie bar.

For cost and ease of replacement, I would just replace the bracket with whats there and get it back on the road. It seems likely that you wont have another problem. However, if it happens again I would start to think about getting the kind that bolt in on both ends. Like mine:

 

[csvt99]

Thanks KingpinSVT, would those 2 bolt brackets require significant modification to the subframe connectors, or can you just kind of rig it with washers, nuts, etc.? Also, how hard are they to get and how much $$?

I'll probably just get the stock ones again, but I'm kind of leary of it because I was getting quite a bit of noise from the stock ones

 

[KingpinSVT]

They are much bigger than the stock hardware. Im not sure if the tabs are the same size as stock now, however. I didnt do the subframe mod to mount them, so I dont know how much bigger they are or what additional work they create. I did have to shorten the mounts/bracket a bit so that it would clear the gas tank. There are nuts welded to the back side of the plate.

Here you can see how much bigger they are than stock:

Those wont be breaking.

 

[csvt99]

wow, thanks

 

[csvt99]

I decided to go with the stock ones for now. As you can see from my pics, the bracket that broke was distorted/twisted. When I got the new bushings for the bar, it was really hard to get them to fit into the stock brackets. I'm hoping the new ones won't have this problem as well...one of my mechanics thought the distortion might have been caused by the larger bushings. We'll see what happens.