5 replies to this topic

[Al*]

well as all of you know Rusty is on the road and I'm loving every minute of bombing through conjested large vehicle infested alberta streets.... the thing is this winter I am taking it back into the garage to do some suspension mods and some other *top secret* stuff. (already miss wrenching on Rusty with 3 other mini projects to do) what I'm wondering is what are opinions of front and rear sway bars? where do they mount to and is it worth it?( not necessarily money wise but does it improve performance...)

my plans for the winter are to add the coil spring kit to replace the rubber doughnuts. ----->coils spring kit!!!
along with the spax lowered knob adjustable shock absorbers, and setting my hi-los another 1"-1.5" lower
I was just wondering if sway bars were worth it.... ----->rear adjustable sway bar ----->front adjustable sway bar

Attached Files

•  start_of_mini_meet_rally.jpg   693.94K   16 downloads

[Al*]

Anyone?!?

Al

[syholl]

Never seen those over here before. Didn't really think the mini needed them to be honest... Would be interesting to hear comments from somebody who has fitted them.

[Alburglar]

that is a lot of money for an anti roll bar!

[Al*]

was planning on building my own due to that price and the fact that I have access to all the tools. just need to know if they are worth putting on and where they mouint and pics to copy off of etc.

Al

[Dan]

The adjustable ones (and I would guess any that you make yourself) require very detailed and careful setting up of the suspension. These are all designed to work with the normal rubber cones so how the fitting of coil springs would effect them is something to consider.

The rear ones are fitted to two nylon or metal (better than nylon) blocks mounted across the bottom of the subframe rear lateral member and the drop links are fitted to brackets fitted to the rear of two of the three brake backplate mounting screws, so that the radius arm is clamped between the back plate and the bracket. Obviously the effect of the torsion bar depends on how far along the arms of the bar the drop links are mounted. The new bars have plates welded to the ends of the bars instead of being bent from a single bar stock. This makes them lighter and more compact so they don't foul stuff under the car. It also means the mounting blocks can be closer to the arms as there's no bend in the bar to contend with. Road spec bars are 1/2" and race spec are 3/4". The plates on the ends are 4mm plate I think, with holes drilled in them at intervals for adjusting the amount of torsion.

The front ones also mount to a pair of blocks across the bottom of the subframe and the torsion arms are formed to run along inboard of the tie rod (single bent torsion bar this time), which they are clamped to directly in the case of the fixed bar. The adjustable one is fitted via drop links to the lower shock mountings. The bar sizes are the same as the rear versions.

Now I've never actually got around to driving a car with one fitted but I've been over the concept a lot and I'm trying to get one together before the trip to the ring. I have been told conflicting stories about how much use the rear bar is, some say fit a front bar only and others say use both together. I do know that at least one will help tremendously with handling as a whole, giving even more cornering ability and predictability.

Edited by Dan, 30 June 2006 - 11:39 PM.