Bent rear endlinks. Options?
 

Hey everyone.

So today I installed my new springs and everything went very smoothly. I didn't even cut myself or anything...no busted knuckles, nothing.
That is until I gave the car a once over, after I drove the car to take back the spring compressors. I noticed that when I reattached the rear sway bar I must have forgetten to turn it all the way so it points forward. As of right now the rear sway bar points down toward the ground and both endlinks are very bent... but not broken somehow.

Now the questions:
I can still drive on this as is right? The only thing it will affect is the handling charactersitcs, no?

If this this true then I have a couple of options... I can either find a salvage yard around here and take them from there for probably very cheap. I can plop down $120 on new Agency Power rear endlinks. Or I can go to the stealership and order a couple new ones.

Does anybody know how much they run for from the dealership?
Also, does anybody know of any slavage yards in Denton/Dallas/Ft. Worth that have rx8s and would have parts for them? Most salvage yards don't tend to have very up to date websites...
Aside from the endlinks I also need the passenger door-lock actuator.

hit up mazmart or look at the for sale section for people parting out cars. can probably get some endlinks from them.

Yeah looked in the FS section a few times, but it's so time consuming sifting through so many posts when a search for "rear enlinks" brings up several pages

I'll try mazmart and keep checking the FS section for sure though, thanks

sure the sway bar is on correctly? it is easy to get it on wrong.
olddragger

No, it's not on correctly. That's why i noticed it. I just didn't rotate it far enough forward when i reattached the endlnks.

upside down? people often made that mistake.

might want to post up a photo, upsidedown is bad.

btw, here is a good deal on the endlinks.

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-parts-sale-wanted-44/fs-racing-beat-ram-air-duct-oem-shifter-oem-front-endlinks-oem-amber-side-markers-155915/

beers :beer:

Sorry to hear about the bad install.

it's not so much upsidedown...just 90 degrees, not 180. Also it's the rears, so those fronts won't work. Thanks though!

I found some for $10 each from partsgroup.com

Hey man,

I also installed coil springs on my stock 8, I used Sprint Springs. I made the mistake of not orienting the sway bar correctly, which, in turn, resulted in badly bent (but not broken) rear end links. I immidiatedly put the sway bar in the proper position leaving the end links the way they were (well, I did have to rerotate them), still bent, but still there at least.

I have been driving like this, lowered 2 inches all around, for about three months now. I have not noticed one negative impact on handling/etc at all. But I am definitely looking at the AP alternatives (Evo, I believe, makes adjustable ones).

You should be fine, and I am planning on replacing these as soon as I get a full scale alignment done. My only problem now is figuring out if I will need a "camber kit" for a proper alignment, due to my extreme drop of two inches.

Hope you figure things out man.

^Extreme drop!?! HAHA! No camber kit needed when I did my springs. Alignment is perfect for me, granted I have a custom setup but not very drastic.

Anyways, to the OP, just buy a set of stock endlinks and call it a day. Not expensive and they get the job done.