Aardwolf

Hey is there a setting on how much a sway bar should move side to side?

For example my rear sway bar has heim links and I could clearance everything for the bar to shift more. If I unhook the end links and pull the sway bar all the way to one side it can probably move 1/2" before it hits the frame.

This question would be for an all stock car too, as those end links lean side to side as well.

mgarfias

What are you trying to accomplish here?

Aardwolf

I'm wondering what the optimum setting is. I can shim the end links so there's no movement at all or I can leave it like it was stock with some movement.

gkmccready

The way the speedway bars mount they use a shaft collar to capture the bushing in the swaybar mount. To me that means they don't allow any side-to-side movement on those bars. Pfadt does the same with their bars.

In theory a swaybar should only have to move up and down and not side to side. In theory.

dcvee

X2, although they do get shorter as they twist, it's so little, play in the bushings allow for that.

Don

Bill Dearborn

There has to be some capability for lateral movement of the end links and maybe the bar. As the control arms move up and down the sway bar mounting point on the control arm travels in an arc Vs straight up and down. Thus the mounting point will be closer to the frame at some point in the travel Vs other points. That means the sway bar and its links need to accomadate the lateral change in distance between the frame and the bar mounting point. When I look at the sway bar bushings on my Z there is a worn spot on the sway bar. That spot (to the best of my judgement) looks like it is the same width (or very close to the same) as the bushings. That makes me think the end link play is sufficient on its own to compensate for the change caused by the control arm going up and down.

Bill

mgarfias

Any movement of the bar that doesn't have it in torsion is going to cause the bar to not react immediately. In extreme cases the car chassis will fall over onto the bar and then suddenly tighten up (front) or loosen up (rear).

Aardwolf

I dropped my rear sway bar (C4 '88) down and replaced the grease in the mounting bushings. Someone posted that it goes away in three months. Mine has definitely diminished in that time. So with new grease the bar slides pretty easy. Try detaching the end links and pulling the bar all the way out some time, mine slides a ways before hitting the frame. The car has smooth bushings that go over the round bar. There's nothing preventing the bar from sliding side to side, other then the end link play or hitting the frame. If your grease is OK still you can just walk up to the car and pull the bar out to that side. A good test to check how the mounting bushing grease is doing.

Stock the end link bushing cracked and tore apart from this movement. I put a poly in and after awhile it developed a dent. Now with the heim links I could set zero deflection but it didn't seem like a good idea so I asked.

That makes perfect sense about the arc of travel, I should have remembered that. I can attach the link then jack the suspension through it's travel and see what it does.

gkmccready

The arc motion is absorbed by the articulation in the endlinks. The bar itself shouldn't be moving side to side (much). The endlinks and the suspension itself will end up holding the bar roughly in place so if you want to see what it really does, attach both endlinks when you move it through bump and droop.

Solofast

Your first bad assumption here is that the sway bars on a C4 should be free to move and should be greased. They should not....v

If you have stock rubber bushings on the bar the rubber bushings clamp it tight, and the rubber twists in torsion while the bar moves. Since the bushings are clamping the bar, it doesn't shift from side to side at all, ever. The bushings don't wear this way, but as they get old they get soft they should be replaced.

If you grease it and set it up to move I have no idea as to what will happen, but screwing up the end links and having the bar moving around is a probably good start.... It is no wonder that the grease gets extruded out of the rubber, it is, and should be tight enough to squeeze out the grease you are putting in there.

C5 bushings are greased and have a surface that is designed to retain the grease, but C4 rubber bushings aren't supposed to be greased..

froggy47

Aardwolf

I have poly, with large non-stock bars. I know about how the rubber bushings should work and I can assure you that my stock ones were rotating. When I popped the old bar off and looked under the bushing there was fine black rubber grit in there and the movement had worn all the paint off the bar. The bar was also nice and polished, some metal had been removed. It obviously needed to be re-clamped.

Anyways at full droop there is about 1/4" of clearance to the end link and at full bump no clearance to the link. So I believe I have to set them this way on each side with the bar centered. Because of the arc of travel I don't believe all side to side movement can be eliminated without compressing the sway bar ends together. I'm not sure what that would do, fatigue the end links?

I can see why the end link bushings take such a beating then if the bar as stock doesn't shift, it would transfer that into deforming the end link bushings. Those were in the worst shape of all the bushings on the car.

davidfarmer

the side-to-side movement of the OEM bars allows them to "neutralize" themselves, a very handy feature since the ends aren't adjustable. In most cases, they will settle to a spot where they are neutral at rest, and move very little once they reach that spot. In some cases, the neutral location is off to one side, causing them to hit the control arm. In these cases, it is likely the corner weights are so far off that the bars can't find a neutral spot.

Aardwolf

I moved the bar to center and then at full droop made a movie. This is full droop at the start and then jacking the rear suspension up. I made sure both sides have enough side to side movement this way. Is this the correct way to have the links set?

This is on my '88 with poly center mount bushings.