Hellwig 7643 Solid, Heat Treated Chromoly, 1-1/4" Rear Sway Bar

Don’t listen to others about the hardware being a problem. Not sure if that was a thing before but if it was, hellwig listened and put good hardware in. I had no troubles rattling on every nut down to probably 200foot pounds with my impact. Very sturdy bar. The polyurethane bushing are a 5 minute job with your average bench vise or BFH and that’s with lubing everything. Do yourself a favor and jack the rear up some and you’ll wrestle around less but wrestling with it is unavoidable, it’s an awkward job under the truck but not much worse than anything else you’ve swapped out on your 7.3 excursion. A good tip, don’t tighten down anything until you have the bottom shocks and their bolts back in. You can use a ratchet strap on the bottom of the shock mount and tie it in with the trailer hitch and pull the assembly to clear the shocks and then you can start tightening down the ubolts. I had too much angle trying to mount shocks after almost being finished but loosening the ubolts and ratchet strap pulling the shock mounts into position did the trick. You’ll see once you’re under there. All in all, the excursion rides like a dream now. I can’t wait to tow with the setup. With a redhead steering box, all new ball joints and steering linkage truck rides phenomenal.

Overview - As many of you, my 2001 Excursion came without a rear sway bar. I repaired my front sway bar bushings last year and waited until this rear Hellwig kit went on sale. I just finished installing it last night and have not drove the vehicle yet. So I can comment on the install which had sufficient hardware and components. Everything seemed stout and nothing was missing. The only things needed were tools and anti-seize PROs - cost effective - convenience of a single kit to add a sway bar - fine thread hardware CONs - I used washers on both the bolt side and nut side when connecting the sway bar to the end links. The threads barely protrude through the lock nut. I will probably end up getting 2 longer ones. But that is barely a con. STARs - I gave this 5 stars because of the look and feel as well as installation. I did refer to the instructions a few times so they were a help. I will update again when I get to try it out on the road. I set mine to the middle setting. Would I Recommend This - yes, a single kit to easily add a sway bar Update 2019-06-19 - after driving it for over a month, this is the best drive-ability upgrade that you could do to your excursion. A must purchase if you do not have a rear sway bar. The steering control and turning is 100% better. It no longer feels rocky but more of a firm control.

I have a 2000 Excursion 4x4 with about 3 inches of lift and 35's. This thing had so much body lean, changing lanes on the freeway was something I would think twice about. It boggles my mind that they would build a vehicle this large and heavy AND with such a high center of gravity with no rear sway bar. This looks to be a very high quality product and the improvement in handling and overall feel of the truck is astounding. I can't believe I waited as long as I did to put this on. As others have mentioned, the instructions are HORRIBLE. Installing this bar isn't rocket science, but it would be useful to know what the engineers intended when they designed it. Things like which hardware to use where, which frame holes to put the links into, etc., would be useful information that Hellwig decided would be best for the customer to figure out on their own. I guess the instructions just assume you'll unbolt the shocks from the lower mount, because they don't say anything about it. If you don't, you'll be fighting them every step of the way. Luckily for Hellwig, I'm reviewing the product and not the instructions. I give the instructions .5 stars. Again, as others have said, for Excursions with no rear sway bar, this is a MUST HAVE item for improved handling and most of all, safety.

Installed it on my 2003 Excursion, it took out some of the weak spring wallow and definitely gives it a more stable and planted feel. I set it on the softest of the three holes, it didn't cause any rougher of a ride. If you sort the hardware and assemble the two side links first on the bench as one process (takes about an hour if you take your time and lube everything well as you go) and install the unit on a different day it is pretty painless. Installation in the truck took about 1.5 hours only because I had not done it before and removing the shock brackets caused some pause to make everything as they will rotate. To save you some time, mark the position of the shock brackets on the axle (chalk) and loosen the lower shock bolts to make it all more pliable as you remove the U bolts. The new U bolts are a larger diameter than the stock bolts, I was concerned the holes in the shock brackets were too small and too close together and would need to be drilled but they did not, the larger bolts went right in. Be sure to lube the inside on the D bushings on the bar as well to keep it from squeaking.

Made a big difference. 2000 4x4 diesel Excursion handled way better; much flatter around corners and way more secure feeling in an emergency maneuver. BIG DIFFERENCE! Easy install. About 2 hours. Instructions were just ok. Watch YouTube and you will get all the help you need. I have only dialed it in to the softest setting.

If you have an Excursion without a rear sway bar, you need this. This newer style helwig has better end links with more adjustment and fit great on my 2005 with no additional work. I installed this along with modified C code F350 springs, and even with a few inches of lift it still had plenty of adjustment left on the links. The instructions however are horrid. So bad in fact, that Hellwig should pull them from the box. They do nothing but ad confusion to what is really an easy install. The instructions also don't mention the need to drill out the shock mount holes to fit the bigger U-bolts. This would be nice to know beforehand. I was also sent a weird arrangement of locking hardware that I don't believe was the correct amount. I just added a few extra nuts I had to double up the locking nuts I feel were missing. The only other gripe is the bushings in the end links. They were a pain to install. I ended up using my 20 ton shop press after greasing them up and got them installed, but I find no reason other than being cheap why Hellwig would make the customer press these into the links. Star docked for these issues. All in all it has made driving a heavily loaded excursion around corners and on the highway as easy as a prius.... not that I know what that would feel like, but I imagine its that easy. It now corners very flat and feels more surefooted on the twisty roads. Great addition to the best SUV ever created.

Hellwig, you make an awesome product. The parts fit great, the install isn't that hard and the price is affordable. My only question is why did you print the instructions so poorly? First off it looks like Stevie Wonder took the pictures for the instructions, and secondly there are only 2 pages and 3-4 pictures! How can you make such a great product and then totally drop the ball on such a small part that means so much? Just a heads up, fire Danny the intern that made those instructions and said they were good then go make some real ones and you will have a top notch kit :D

The Hellwig 7643 makes a marked improvement in the handling of the king of SUV's, namely the Ford Excursion. If you have a factory Excursion rear sway bar, do yourself a favor and upgrade to the rear sway bar from an F250/F350 which is thicker, however, if like me, your Excursion did not come with a rear sway bar, the Hellwig, which is thicker then even the F250/F350 rear sway bar, is an excellent addition that helps with body roll thus making the Excursion safer to drive. Install is straight forward and not too time consuming, but I will say the instructions that come with it are not very clear, google is your friend.