Rear anti-swaybar idea-low cost
 

I've been reviewing the front and rear suspension for anti-sway bar upgrade potential. Laying on the ground looking at the rear anti-sway bar it hit me that the stock rear bar could be doubled up with another stock bar very easily by simply extending the mounting plates and using U-bolts through two plates and a connecting arm to mate them together. This method of attachment would also give infinite adjustability. As I have a few :rolleyes: parts laying around the garage I'm going to give this a try once the struts return. Thoughts???

I've also determined that a straight 1" (aka 25mm) rod will fit through the front subframe where the stock 18mm pre-bent bar runs now. Though not as low-cost, a splined 1" diameter bar is available from a variety of sources as are blank arms that connect to the splines. The arms would need to be bent and drilled, but I have fab and heat treat sources. The mounts will need to be dropped down and rearward as well. I will get dimensions tomorrow and costs next week.

Todd

Its been done by many different car groups (volvo guys use the idea the most). Go for it.

Mr. Wawazat -

Your front bar idea has serious merit. I believe Mr. SVXRide has been using such a bar for almost two years - acquired from Mr. Mychailo. His locker is most informative.

The effectiveness of the rear bar would definitely be improved through the approach you propose. An alternative would be to bend up a larger piece of chrome moly round stock, as Mr. SVXRide has done.

w. 450 and 315 spring ratios... who needs sway bars??

Tom

I think the balance between front and rear is most important thing for handling. When that balance is off, and the rear end tends comes around unexpectedly, it's difficult to get it back under control. When it's set up right, some rear end movement can be achieved with throttle lift at the appropriate time and trail braking. The trick is to achieve rear-end movement that is self-limiting. It can really help in tight corners. Unexpected non-self-limting rear end movement results in wet undies and looking back directly into the faces of those following you.

At this point in time, even my 335 lb/285 lb set-up has an acceptable amount of lean, even in tight hairpins. Keeping the ends balanced with camber and tire pressures is the most important thing, rather than further decreasing lean.

Having said all that, heavier sway bars with softer springs might be a way to achieve superior cornering with greater ride comfort.

Autocross considerations may lead to an entirely different conclusion, however.

Hi Todd, this was pretty close to what I had Dave Clark do for Bill. He ended up putting a slight offset in the front bar to be sure that it cleared the oil pan. The stiff front bar shreds the endlinks pretty quickly. I'm surprised that Bill has not commented yet in this thread. :-)

Who's Bill? :p:D he and I talked about his endlink issues Mychailo. It seems that the problem was more on the strut-endlink bracket being shorn off the strut housing. That can be fixed and I now have some adjustable higher performance endlinks on my car so the endlink issue seems to be dead.

That said, I have done neither of the anti-sway bar ideas above after finding a ton of room for enhancement in my driving. I have also acquired a very nice tube/rod/angle bender and die set so I anticipate making my own rear bar shortly.

Todd

Mychailo,
I was just waiting for you to show up, my friend!;):D
Yeah, if you go in and weld the tabs on the struts correctly, they will handle the increased loads from the bigger bar. Then your issue becomes the top of the tab actually breaking off (yep, had that happen early this year:rolleyes:), so you just weld in a thicker piece of steel with the correct size hole drilled through it. I'm very curious to see how this bar works with the GCs (once I actually have the time to work on the reX II:rolleyes:) or with the coilovers you're going to get for us;)
-Bill