This is my second post regarding this topic, so my apologies to those surprised seeing a new thread. I wanted to create a new thread since the situation has changed somewhat.
Background: my '89 740 Turbo Wagon with 110K miles on it has been experiencing shakes and rattles on the front left wheel while driving at around or higher than 60 MPH. Recent repairs: steering rack and outer tie rod ends replaced, plus wheel balancing. A few posters here pointed me to the ball joint as beeing the possible problem. So yesterday I put my brick on stands, removed the front left wheel, and had a good look around. From what I can see, and I am no expert on this, is that the ball joint looks OK. The rubber bushing is a bit cracked, but otherwise it looks fine. What did not seem fine though was a smallish rod connecting what I think is my sway bar (it's a long bent rod that seems to go all the way across the front of my car to the other front wheel) to one of the large control bars that connects the wheel to the chassis. This smallish rod is about 6 inches long, is connected to the sway bar via a bushing and bolt perpenticular to the rod itself, and at the other end is connected to the control bar again with a straight bolt and bushing. The bushings on both ends look very worn out. I was able to move the rod around with my hand a bit while having the car jacked up. Could this piece be causing the rattling? What is the name of this rod? And most of all, is the replacement of this rod a DIY job for someone comfortable with oil changes, tune-ups, and other minor jobs but who does not want to get involved with compressing struts/shocks? I have a nice set of jack stands, hand-jack, basic wrenches/sockets etc.
Any help would be appreciated. I would love to finally get rid of this rattling.
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