gkmccready

Okay. This is round #2 with the front swaybar for me. I lost round #1 when the pillow block bolt holes didn't line up with the holes in the sub-frame -- Aaron is taking care of that, and in the mean time I've reamed mine out to allow them to fit.

Next problem is that the swaybar conflicts with my DRM ducts... fine, I'll pull them off and relocate them after I get the bar on. Tightening the bottom allen head bolt for the end-links is exciting as my 10mm allen head socket doesn't really fit back there due to the spring being in the way, but eventually I got it happy. Not looking forward to having to remove that to try a different hole in the bar...

So, get the blocks in, get the bar in, get the arms on, get the endlinks on, only thing left is the allen head bolt to hold the arms to the splined ends of the bar itself... these bolts asbolutely refuse to thread in. I've tried both bolts on bolt sides. No good. I followed the directions and lubed them before each attempt -- I used silicone spray since it didn't specify.

It's a 1/4in allen head bolt? What the hell could I be doing wrong? Anybody have any ideas?

glen

PS- The rear pillow blocks and bar went on without a hitch.

******************************

It's Tuesday morning now; the bars are on, the endlinks are atleast pointing the right direction now, things are reasonably quiet, and working darn well. I'm very happy with the finished product. The DRM conflict stems from me being a C6 non-Z -- the C5 guys should get clearance, and the C6Z guys get their stock duct work. I talked to Randy@DRM and we decided that a torch and some massaging might get enough clearance for the ducts. Aaron is working with the machine shop to deal with the pillow blocks and the small piece of sludge that wouldn't let me get the LF pinch bolt in easily. And for those of us that install these things on jackstands I believe the instructions are being fleshed out a bit, too.

In the end a good product is on the car successfully, through GREAT customer service. I'd do it all again.

gkmccready

Round #2b:

A small zip-tie won't even pass through the bolt hole on the drivers side so there's just no way for the bolt to. Looks like the machining on the arm?

The zip-tie passes through the bolt hole on the passenger side, but some poking around it looks like the hole is slightly out of place and the bolt would have to pass through a spline of the bar? Not really sure of a good way to check this.

And, finally, has anybody got the Pfatty bars installed with the DRM ducts? I can't for the life of me see how I could orient the duct to clear the swaybar. I assume since these bars fit a C6 Z that the stock C6 Z ducts fit? Anybody know for sure?

I'm getting close to calling this a failed experiment...

John Shiels

pictures? Sometimes things take a while but are worth it. Time will tell. Bad if there is no hole never mind threading problem.

gkmccready

No pictures today. Sorry. There's a hole on each end, but it just doesn't go all the way through on the drivers side. And on the passenger side there's definite interference part way down the hole.

Now that the problem is identified I'm sure Aaron will set me up as soon as I can get ahold of him. I'm just frustrated right now because I'm really not looking forward to swapping the stock front bar back on again tomorrow in order to drive the car to work Monday. :-)

Makes me glad I thought ahead and ordered a stock inner fender liner and brake duct just in case I wanted to go back to stock at some point... I really would like to hear from somebody running Pfadt bars and DRMs or C6Z ducts... a picture would really help me out!

I know there are thousands of aftermarket parts and not all will play well together, but the DRM ducts are pretty much standard equipment on a track-bound Corvette, no?

And one final note... the made in China end-links were a bit of a surprise. Is there no room to have a female body and two male ends, one LH thread, one RH thread, so you can easily adjust length on the car?

John Shiels

bad enough when you don't need the car and you can't finish. Crap from China sucks! I always ask or look where everything I buy is made. One week it's made here and you buy the same product next week and it's not. Like getting a battery powered toy for Christmas when you are a kid and boom nobody got you batteries.

gkmccready

A kind fellow PM'd me and said that I should look very closely at the splines on the bar as some of them were machined away on his to provide clearance for the bolt to go through.

I'll have to check that tomorrow morning... maybe I just got lucky on the rear bar, and unlucky on the front. But I don't recall seeing anything, but it could be the case, if it is it's certainly not called out in the instructions, and there're no index marks.

John Shiels

I have some equipment with that type of attachment. There usually is a recess machined on the shaft all the way around or maybe just in one spot if they want it to align in a certain postion.

davidfarmer

I've really been thinking of buying some of there stuff, but if it fits as badly as you are saying, I'll stay away. If you're going to sell trick stuff, you really need to get it right the first time!

John Shiels

first impressions stick

Zip Corvettes

we have installed a couple of them and had no problems.

Zip Corvettes

On a side note the new T1 Bars are back and the rears are adjustable.

gkmccready

C5? C5Z? C6? C6Z? Pillow blocks? Pfatty or standard?

gkmccready

based on the comments from the fellow earlier tonight, I'll update you tomorrow if there's some magic way to position the bar that makes this work. I'd rather blame a combination of myself and the instructions than the parts!

The pillow blocks should be fixed before anybody else gets them. I'm disappointed with the Made in China endlinks, and the 10mm allen head on the front lower endlink not having enough space for my 10mm allen socket.

We'll see how it plays out tomorrow.

RAFTRACER

Dont have any experience with the pillow blocks, but have had some install issues..........As far as the splined arms , make sure that the fastener will pass through the threads without being pressed onto the bar. I have found it necessary to remove some small burrs from the spline/thread intersection. Additionally how far the lever arm is installed onto the bar makes a difference, and you must make sure that circumfrential groove in spline (for the bolt) lines up exactly with the bolt bore. On the last Pfadt Pfatty front I have done , it was necessary on one of the sides to lightly touch the groove in the splines with a carbide grinder bit or file as no matter how I tried the lever arm bolt would not start because it couldn't pass through the groove. Use anti-sieze on the lever arm bolts, because none of them threaded easily in even off of the bar.
I am not a huge fan of the endlinks either, I typically do not like the heims that have the studs pressed into the inner ball (like the rears). This makes it necessary to remove the entire end link to make an adjustment or set length. The rear heim assy's could also use to be shorter as this would "level out" the rear bar as its angle of attack is pretty strong. I purposely shortened mine..
Make sure the lever arms are inclinated to the bar correctly as stated in the instructions , or when you set it down and inspect you will be going over all of this again.
Sorry about the brake ducts, are you sure they wont clear when sitting at ride hieght ????

varkwso

I am also all ears on this install since I was also considering the setup.

John Shiels

the last thing you want to do after buying something is to continue the machining process.

Zip Corvettes

C5,C5,C6,C6Z what's the difference? They are all the same. I have installed the the new phatty bars and the regular bars. I have not used the new blocks yet though. I have not had any problems installing any of the bars we have sold, but I only had a small issue on a roll bar in a C5. It was something small and we fixed it during the install. We have these on our NCCC C5 but I have not had a chance to play with them on the track yet.

RAFTRACER

There are some minor differences between front and rear subframes on C5's and C6's..... I have not used the pillow blocks yet either....

Hope that NCCC car with those bars has a roll-bar (safety) in it , because with those bars welcome to group3 (sure wish the NCCC would more parellel the SCCA SP rules for group2 ). Group 3 is an invitation to spend a whole lot more money........

gkmccready

RAFTRACER, thanks for all the tips, they should be on the instruction sheets! I'm not too keen on machining $800 swaybars -- shouldn't they come that way? I'll back out the rear arm bolts and apply anti-sieze, and try sorting out the front with the groove... silly me assuming that seating the arm would line it up correctly.

Dumb question, how tight do you tighten the endlinks? The only torque spec on the sheets is for the allen head bolts in the arms (@ 28ft-lb).

Yup. Unless physics change, the fixed end of the bar itself is exactly where the bottom of the DRM duct has to sit. All the one piece swaybars have arms that start to bend down towards the control arms at that point so they clear the ducts.

EDIT: To be absolutely fair to Pfadt Racing. Aaron emailed me at 7am Sunday morning for more information about these issues that I had emailed him about yesterday -- they're doing their best to figure out what's going on, even though they're closed on the weekends.

gkmccready

Aside from what RAFTRACER said, the C6Z has factory brake ducts (ala the DRM ducts) so I'm curious about clearance...