End link holes bored out

[chopper320]

I’m about to tackle the ball joints on my wife’s trailblazer and I’ve started looking everything over to figure out what all I want to take care of while I have it apart.
While looking, I noticed something weird with the end links. I guess my father in law replaced them a couple of years ago when he owned the truck and when he did, he realized the holes that the end links go into had bored themselves out over time and there wasn’t much to hold the new nuts in place. To fix this, he just used washers over the bolts. It seems to be holding ok but does this sound like it should be ok to you guys? Should I do something different?

Thanks

 

[Reprise]

This is the strategy I used (my holes werent 'egged out', but I didn't want them to be, either.)

Mine is an '03, so I have the earlier type links - and I just fastened mine back up today. OEM had one flat washer on the bottom end of the link - I went with a flat on one side, and a lockwasher on the nut side, top and bottom. I also torqued them down to 107 ft/lb (original spec was 74, but GM revised it for the early MY) and used theadlocker, as so many here reported them loosening / failing again.

So...I think washers are a pretty good strategy. If the holes are enlarged significantly, you may want to have them welded / redrilled, or replace the bar / LCA, as needed. There are even people here that have permanently removed the front or rear bars (with varying results; some wound up reattaching)

 

[Mektek]

I made shims that fit in the enlarged holes in the sway bar and control arm bracket. Tapped in the link bolts with a hammer. Nice tight fit with zero play.