Tried to stick on my rear swaybar the other day, damn those 275s, doesn't fit. Others have surely run into this before, what have you done? I know all the arguments for/against a rear swaybar at all, but I know I want to try it out.

Problem: How to move the frame-pivots inward? Lacking a convenient cross member (the nearby crossmembers are too far forward, would require extremely short arms on the swaybar...still a possibility?) The only things I could think of are A: weld in a new crossmember just for this purpose. or B: design a "K" shaped swaybar like so:


Sorry for the bad drawing, but hopefully makes the point.

Would this kind of design be too weak, or bend in the wrong places? How less efficient do the diagonal arms make it?

I plan to make it tubular rather than solid for weight reasons, and ease of adding spherical end links.

All comments appreciated :cheers:
Chris


Edit: Image not working for me, maybe you'll have better luck. Picture a swaybar with diagonal arms on the ends, but the arms are moved inward, so some straight section sticks out.

It also just occurred to me that I could place a mount on the inside of the frame instead of the bottom, and have it hang down, using a more standard swaybar, with slightly diagonal arms.


[Modified by RUXperienced, 2:12 AM 11/12/2003]

 

now you got me worried on weather or not mines gonna fit, i like the design but i dont know enought about suspensions to give yuo advice on it.

MAtt

 

I'd have to see a picture of why your rear sway doesn't work.

I bought my 3/4 from Vette Brakes and Products and it did not pit on my my car. The rear frame mounting point held the bar back far enough that you couldn't ever bolt it onto it's attachment points.

I finally realized that my larger rear spring was holding the mounting point further away and then i installed spacer blocks to lower the frame mounting point.

 

It doesn't fit because it's just plain too wide, to even hold it in position I have to wedge it up between the tires. It would be constantly rubbing the inside of the tires, and I'm afraid on hard cornering I would have a flat (again!) on my hands. I have stock aluminum wheels, stock offset, 275 60R15 tires.

I've never designed anything for my car before, I'm curious how good my engineering instincts are. :yesnod:

-Chris

 

Are you planing on building a sway bar with welded arms? First it should be made out of 1045 steel at the very least plus it must be heat treated to RC 43 roughly. I don't know about welding.
Coleman racing sells splined tubular sway bars any length for about $86. They are splined on the ends plus they sell the arms 16 inches long splined for the sway bar in straight and 30 degree. They also sell the mounting blocks.
I am going this route. I too want to try a rear sway bar this summer.

 

A Vette Sway bar should fit. So I don't know what you have. I would never attempt to cut and weld spring steel. Heat will destroy the metals temper and it will crack and break instead of flex.

I always wished that sway bars were sold as % instead of diameter. It would make much more sense to me!

 

Springs are not as hard as you may think. A spring can be cut with a hawksaw or drilled with a normal drill bit. It's hardness is in the 43RC range. Normal 1045 steel can be made into a spring by shaping then hardened then drawn back to 43RC. If you start with normal 1045 round stock it is soft, do the welding carefull to get full penetration then have the whole bar heat treated, not with a torch but in a proper furnace , remember no torch deal here. Anyway have a company do the job and request 43-44RC and you will be fine.
If you try using an existing bar and weld arms on it forget it. The weld will form martinsite and it WILL break.
If you go to the trouble of building your own bar get it heat treated.

 

I don't know the brand, it could be ADDCO like VBP sells. I got it from Redvetracer. I don't see how ANY bar using the factory connections could fit with tires that protrude in as far as mine do. Unless the arms were made to be a 90 degree square-turn instead of a bend, there's not really any way to pull the arms in closer that I can see. If that would do it, that would be the easiest route.

Norval, thanks for the info, if I decide I need to go from scratch I'll remember to do it right :thumbs: I'm reading the metallurgy portion of Carroll Smith's Engineer to Win, so the options with steel types and hardening are starting to get more clear.


[Modified by RUXperienced, 5:06 PM 11/12/2003]