Could you expand a bit on your comment "I could see the spot where it had been banging against the subframe."?

Was it on the driver or passenger side? Did it have anything to do with the kink in the sway bar?

On my 95 SE the OEM sway bar was staright with no kink, while my 96 SE had the kink. Also, as I recall, the kink should be on the drivers side. Now others may disagree, but as I mentioned earlier, before installing a buttressed subframe I always reassemble and run the suspension through it's complete range of motion on the garage floor. There also exists a typical car to car variance. Plus there's not a lot of clearance for the OEM sway bar and bigger bars make the small amount of clearance even less!

Bushing preload is only required for rubber bushings which move in a radial axis. Nut/bolt assemblies should be tightened with the car's suspension in it's normal "at rest" position. The Ford factory Service manual explicitly mentions this procedure.

Hey JD-give me a close up of that subframe and the buttressing on the sway bar "socket"!

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