Sway
Bar Problems
When I bought this car
back in 1997, I had a restoration shop rebuild the
suspension in order to get the car through Connecticut's
State inspection. Part of that work was the installation
of a 7/8" front sway bar. Nine years later (Winter
'06/07) I rebuilt the front end using all Nylatron
components for the suspension and Poly bushings for the sway bar. I also
got new end links that, I thought, matched the 10 year
old ones I had removed. But between installing the bar
wrong and having the wrong end links, this "upgrade" was
doomed from the start.
As you can see from the
picture below, the threaded end link shaft was way to
short once the bushings were in place. No amount of
compression gave me enough thread to catch a nut on. No
problem.......just shave those poly bushings down a bit
until there's some thread to catch. Mistake #1.
When I re-installed the
bar I still had the car up on jack stands, wheels off
and, obviously, no load on the front suspension
components. No problem................just use a bottle
jack to move the control arm into position and you can
install the bar and end links. Only problem is that put
stress in all the wrong places. Mistake #2. The correct
was is to install the bar and links with the front
suspension fully loaded. The easiest way is to drive the
front onto ramps and then jack the rear end to get the
car in a level and loaded position. Here's what happens
when you do it wrong.
Almost 1/2" thick
at the ends |
No thread to
catch |
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Looks like it should be
OK |
About 3000 miles
later...uh oh! |
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And a bigger
Uh Oh....a cracked bracket from the stress.
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Fellow Mail List Member
and Auto-crosser, Bob Lang shared his experience about
the need for the sway bar and control arm to be parallel
or very close to parallel. He also referred me to the folks at
Energy Suspension, who also stated that the control arm and sway bar end
should be parallel when installed correctly. Then an
email from Art Lipp at
TR Parts.com
also emphasized the need to be parallel. Well that
will never happen with these end links and brackets.
To compound the problem the distance between the end
links is 35-1/2" while the holes in the sway bar are
34-1/2" apart so those won't line up without some
fitting issues.
Bob Lang and Art Lipp
shared pictures of the mounting bracket they use and
it's basically a flat piece of iron mounted to the
control arm with a hole on the end for the End Link to
attach to. So when you can't find exactly what you want
it's time to make what you want. Let's make a bracket!
End Link Bracket Page
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