Sneak peek at my latest SC project

Mercutio

SCCoA Member
I'm really not sure how many people will be interested in this, but it's something I've thought about doing for years:

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I'm after two things: a bit of weight loss, and some adjustability. The tubular sway bar is obviously lighter than solid bars. I'll also be able to place multiple endlink mounting holes in the sway bar arms to change their effective length, making the bar stiffer or weaker.

I was going to hold off on posting this until it was done, but I thought it would be done today. Turns out I didn't order the right endlink hardware, so while the bar is in, I can't hook it to the control arms yet.

If anyone is interested I can write up a how-to, but this setup is significantly more expensive than an Addco bar, so I'm not sure how many others will want to do this.
 
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Nice! Where did you source the parts? I'm looking into putting together a similar setup for the '65 C10 I'm building.
 
The bar and arms came from Speedway Engineering out in CA. No one stocks off the shelf stuff wider than 43", and I wanted a 46" bar (now that it's in place, I can see a 45" bar would work). Speedway does custom orders and will build about any length/OD/wall bar you want. The arms are built long, and you can cut them to length. I think the shortest aluminum arms were 17", but our cars only need about an 8-9" arm.

I also ordered 1/2" heim joints and hardware to build endlinks from Speedway Engineering, but they're just too big. I've ordered 3/8" heims from Speedway Motors.

I made the spacers from a length of 1.5"x.75" aluminum stock that I think I got from McMaster-Carr. The bushings are available at Advance.
 
Cool. I actually just bought my weld-bushings and some other parts from them to weld up an adjustable panhard bar. They were easy to order from/work with.
 
Ordered from Speedway Engineering, or Speedway Motors? I got confused a few times myself.

Engineering was very easy to work with and didn't charge my CC until they actually shipped the bar, which was nice of them. However, you can't order over their website. Motors has a great website, but is more of a Jegs type place than a manufacturer.
 
The new 3/8 heim joints should work just fine as endlinks. I ordered one male and one female per side, so they just screw together. At their shortest length, they're about 3", which is right where I needed them.

After getting the hardware sorted out, it looks as if this is only going to drop about 3.75 pounds of weight, which is a bit disappointing. Every individual part was a bit heavier than I anticipated, and I've had to add more hardware to mount the new sway bar brackets and heim joint endlinks.

I don't have the arms/endlinks installed yet, but that shouldn't take long this weekend. I drilled four holes in each sway bar arm for tuning: one setting shorter (stiffer) than the stock arm length, one equal, and two longer (softer).

I made my best guess for coming up with a sway bar wall thickness that would approximate the Addco 1.125" rear bar, but it's just a guess. If this ends up significantly stiffer or weaker, I may have to try a new bar with a thinner or thicker wall (which would also affect the weight a bit). I'm going to look at a car tomorrow to replace my MR2, so I'll see if I can give the car a road test and see how it feels.
 
Time for some lightening holes. :) You can pull a little mass out of the arms and spacers.

That's a rabbit hole I'm not sure I want to go down. Start doing that to one part and it gets too easy to justify doing that all over the car.

Edit: though if I can find some lighter locating collars to replace the steel ones, I might try that.

I did mean to mention, though, that the heim joint endlinks will allow me to preload the sway bar. In other words, have someone set their lengths and hook them up while I'm in the driver's seat. That way, there's no load on the bar in a normal resting state.
 
I thought you were joking for a minute...all I could think of initially were Honda guys using hole saws on their bumpers. "Speed holes"

Not at all. And it can be done nicely/aesthetically. I just finished these trailing arms a few weeks ago for a '65 C10 I'm building. Granted, that instance was more about the look rather than weight savings.


That's a rabbit hole I'm not sure I want to go down. Start doing that to one part and it gets too easy to justify doing that all over the car.
I get that. I've thought the same, and I just may if I ever tear back into my car some day.
 
The car drove fine today, though I didn't have the chance to push the car very hard. I was surprised that the heim joint endlinks don't make any noticeable amount of noise (at least between my exhaust and my tinnitus).
 
Two more things regarding endlinks: first, one of the reasons I finally decided to actually do this was that like a lot of other people, my stock-style endlinks were bent. They were the right length for a lowered car, but at full droop (changing tires, etc), the bolts bent and one of the endlinks' threads were completely galled up.

The second note is that using heim joints meant I needed a bracket on the LCAs. They were easy enough to make out of L-bracket steel, but the LCA mounting hole is about .700", and that's way too big for any normal bolt. I drilled them out to 3/4" and put a 3/8x3/4" spacer in each side. This way, every bolt on the sway bar and endlinks is 3/8-24 (with the exception of the bolts that fasten the sway bar mounts to the subframe, which are the stock size/pitch, just longer).

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Nicely done Will. Are you still autocrossing this car? It will be a great way to adjust the "assyness" to suit the conditions.


cheers
Ed
 
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