something like this .... straight tube, like a torsion bar.... http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Universal-Rear-Sway-Bar-Kit,4053.html
Chris, I have to admit that I am not sure if this is something I need. I'm concerned that Addco's own website states that going too big can cause a problem. To keep everything in sync, it seems that if the front is upgraded the back needs to be also. You have a non-stock rear. Has Addco indicated that there is no problem to run the thicker front bar with their standard rear on our stock rear suspension? Just dont want to see the rear step out because of an imbalance. My qustion is complicated by the fact that I have a Total Control front suspension sitting in the boxes waiting to be installed. http://www.addco.net/aftermarket/tech/how-swaybars-work/ Micah
I don't know how that would be able to reach the lower arms without the necessary bend to get the links mated up. And the bending of the bars isn't the bigger challange.. it's the proper tempering and stiffening of the steel without becoming brittle afterwards to really make it worthy for long term use in such a torsionally stressed environment.
I don't think the TCP front suspension takes the same stock style sway bar connection at the lower arms. Might be best to call them.. or wait for more guys here running the same exact setup to chime in before placing that order.
That would be my concern as well. Not so much the how as I would assume they will heat and smash the end flat as is typical. Adding holes to shorten or lengthen the end link connection points on the bar to reduce/increase leverage for the sake of reducing/increasing rated stiffness would stress the bolts/end links when off center from the suspensions normal plane of travel, right? In which case we may as well just use the early Mustang bars since they are too long on the ends as well from what pic's I've seen. I've also thought of just modding one of those 65/66 bars since it would be fairly easy to chop a bit of length and just have them flattened once more for a place to drill the new hole which the end link can mate up to. Which would likely make them even stiffer as they leverage was reduced. Would ruin the temper at the ends.. but they probably wouldn't break in that location anyways? Wouldn't want to test that theory at higher speeds on a big sweeping corner though. lol
I used a 1-1/8" from a Mustang....Had to slightly modify where it mounts to the frame and re-drill a different hole in the LCA about 3/4" further towards the rear of the car
I've considered this. There is no room to mount it without interference with either the strut rods or crank balancer. I've even looked into drilling a hole thru the frame and mounting it via a pipe. Its just not going to work. I have to agree that adding too large of a bar would complicate things and I'll even step out there to say that you should not be interested in purchasing this bar without at least having plans to also install a rear bar. Having too large of a front will induce more oversteer. To counter, you make the rear stiffer. I do not have a stock rear end. I have a torque arm with coil-overs and a 3/4 bar. I currently have oversteer, therefore need to stiffen up the front or soften the rear. Considering the amnt of roll I already have, softening would not be the way to go. I'd venture to say that the 7/8-3/4 combo was not designed for performance driving or even the tires and wheels we are starting to run on our cars. It is balanced to 15/16 inch wheel/tire combos on stockish suspensions. Newer larger tires can handle more than what this bar combo can throw at them so thats exactly what I intend to do. I also have the Total Control front suspension. The stock bars fit without a problem. I ran into issues with my 7/8 bar rubbing against my strut rods due to my extremely low ride hight. I've remedied that problem by purchasing a set of drop spindles from Fatman Fab. Unless you plan on lowering as much as I have, you should have no issues. True. But as posted on the other thread there are options to solve this as well. Shown here is a similar bar with 3 adjustment holes. Here is an adjustable end link to help keep the end links in line. I would likely make my own with 3 holes and weld it to the lower control arms. Im not sure how these are ment to be help in place without them wanting to rotate. Drilling the factory frame mounts for additional mounting locations in either directions is also an option but would require more involvement track side to make on-the-fly adjustments.
yeah I figured adjustable end links were probably all we had at our disposal.. but I was concerned about adjustments and angles being too limited.. or extreme.. depending on perspective. I have to admit that I'm having second thoughts about jumping in here.. especially after going further forward with my front suspension design and talking to Varishock/Alston today. My car will be heavily mod'd and old school engineered eventually so I know that this bar may cause intereference and probably be just too damned big once my front end is excessively lightened. Just the motor setback alone combined with heavy diet of steel parts will likely force me back towards these stock type sizes. But, on the other hand.. it will be a while(next year) before I put that time and cash into the front of my car since I'm only concerned about AL heads and getting it back on the road this year anyways. Plus, I figure I could very easily sell a custom bar to some other hardcore chap like us who comes around later wanting more. If they don't start listing the new part number after the short run we get?.. I get more of my money back. If they do?.. well.. at least I get to enjoy digging into the corners a bit harder until I drop cash on a custom coil-over setup and relish the fact that we paved the way for others to do the same as well. Win.. win. I really dig those big vented rotors. What parts are they? I've been paging through some old suspension trick books as of late and may try to do one of the old T-bird multi-caliper swaps. I just figure everything else will get all choped to hell.. so why stop mod'ing there, eh? LOL
Yep, i tried it too....The only way i can think that it might would be to mount the struts to the rear instead of the front but that starts it's own set of problems
Chris, That was exactly my question. Would Addco make a corresponding thicker rear bar to compliment the thicker front so that those of us running a stock rear suspension would not have an oversteer problem? Or, can they advise if the stock rear bar is sufficient with the thicker front? I would feel more comfortable in purchasing if I had a little more info. Thanks for all your work on this. Micah
I highly doubt that addco would want to make another rear design just because we got them to agree to a short run of 10 front bars.. but I guess it never hurts to ask though. Which is of course why this thread even exists in the first place. IMHO, you wouldn't need to worry about the rears thickness as much as the front due to the lopsided weight variance bwteen both ends of these shorter wheelbase cars. The front is where you get most of the roll anyways. However.. if you want to reduce the tendency for the rear to get out on these cars any more than they already do with the smaller bar?.. you'd need to lower the rear end down to keep a better CG to help keep that from happening when moving to the bigger front bar. IOW, shorter wheelbases running stiffer than stock springs and lighter rearends with stock type leafs are the one's to watch when going to bigger bars in the front. Rear battery relocations never hurts to help keep rear rise in check also. @rthomas. There was another member here last year who posted pic's of his Mustang bar laid out on the floor next to his Mav's.. and also mounted on the car which showed the canted end links caused by that early Mustang bar swap. IIRC, he did the exact same thing and redrilled his lower arm too. About the only issue that I could see is if the lower arm was loaded moreso on one side that the other.. would be some some slight flex of the inner bushing as the lower arm was loaded/unloaded. Might be best to have urethane in that situation to reduce the tendency, IMO. But sometimes we all just have to do with what we got, I guess.
