Upgraded swaybar swap

ewokracing

ewokracing

Active Member
Decided to do a quick write up and picture dump of how I swapped over to a larger swaybar on my p6b.

(plus a few niggles that I found).

1. Car with front wheels up in the air. Luckily I had access to a hoist which then has a sub hoist underneath it, so I was able to get the car up in the air at a perfect working height, with both front wheels off the ground. Wheels off, suspension exposed. (I noticed that the grease on the drivers side has gotten very hot and has been leaking out of the grease cap.)

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2. There are 4 bolts to undo. I found mine were probably around the correct tightness (30 ft pounds). They also had what looks like factory grease on them and the end of the factory sway bar

I had given them a quick squirt of Penetrene thinking they would be hard to get off but they were easy. I used a ratchet ring spanner.

IMG_5656_zpsjck7gdgd.jpg


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Once both sets of bolts are out, out comes the sway bar. I found it easy to take out from the passenger side. New and old are compared below

IMG_5661_zpsikrmzrzb.jpg


The only problem is fitting the new bar. I slid the bar in from the passenger side and it was an extremely tight fit, to the point where I scraped some paint off the inside lip of the wheel arch. If you have a concours car, I'd recommend either taping the bar ends or the inside lip of the guard.
Bolts were done up to 30ft pounds but they do keep loosening. I've done them tighter each time (I'm checking at the end of each day). If they keep loosening, I'll do them up to 30ft and add in a dab of loctite.

One of the easiest pieces of work I've done on the car yet. Recommend it.
 
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That is a very sharp hex to round transition! Hopefully these will not have any future issues with stress at the transition point.

Now all thats left to do is enjoy the better handling :cool:
 
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Hi,

Our version one bar looked very like your bar, sharp transitions, it lasted a couple of events before breaking. We do work our car pretty hard so draw your own conclusions but if it was me I'd remove it before it breaks and soften the transitions.

Tim
 
^ that's not great to hear. Do you have a photo of your version 2 bar end so I can get mine machined the same?

Once the W58 gearbox and jag rear end go in I plan on doing track days.
 
I found I had to go to the next set screw size up to A) keep the bolts tight and B) stop them snapping. You need at least grade 5 and preferably grade 8 but you will probably strip the internal thread if you go higher than five. It isn't so much the tightening load but the additional load when the bar is at full twist as there is a small turning moment across the hex caps in the other two planes. That is the bar is trying to go S shaped whilst twisting and at the same time rotate a miniscule amount around the vertical axis (because the bar is parrallel with the top link turning axis not right through it)

Another point to consider is the steel the bar is made of as different steels differ in their springiness so you could use a thinner bar from steel with a stiffer rate

final point, is that at full droop the standard bar misses the bottom of the chassis hole by very little. Thicker bars can hit it and bind when cornering as the arms go further than static full droop due to the rubber mounts and other dynamic effects such as chassis twist. I've ground a couple of mill of mine to ensure it doesn't hit (the bottom of the hole not the bar)
 
mikecoombs said:
I found I had to go to the next set screw size up to A) keep the bolts tight and B) stop them snapping. You need at least grade 5 and preferably grade 8 but you will probably strip the internal thread if you go higher than five.
Click to expand...

This is interesting to know...would be irritating to fit and then find that the bolts snap off. Care to publish what length/thread size and grade you found to be sufficient? Have you stopped the snapping now?
 
Standard is 5/16" x 1 3/8" mine are 3/8" by 1 1/2". They haven't broken but the bar has chipped on the hex...it was milled incorrectly with a sharp ridge rather than the taper at the end of the milling. He said at the time if he could get a decent run he would make up a forging die and forge the ends, but that was some years ago now. Note for much of its life the car was driven over very rough roads often with shot suspension rubbers so I wasn't really that surprised when they broke
 
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