SC sway bar swop

[bruboy]

Is it worth swapping the SC front and rear sway bars to the later larger diameter carrera bars to reduce body roll?

Bruce
83sc

[dd74]

I think Carrera bars a little larger, so if you can get them cheap, sure, I'd give it a try.

[no substitute]

Bigger rear bars can tear the rear mounts (see WEVO thread). One option for a street car is to increase torsion bar size and leave the sway bars alone. This lessens roll and helps to retain a comfortable ride. Changing the front bar to the through the body bar makes it easier to access the area under the front cover plate.

[drsimonwong]

My motorsport mechanic recommends the same line of thought as "no susbstitue".

[dd74]

Originally posted by no substitute
Changing the front bar to the through the body bar makes it easier to access the area under the front cover plate.

Only thing is it's much more labor intensive. I believe you have to remove the gas tank for this. I'm not sure, but I'd check first.

[bruboy]

The good thing with the carrera sway bar is that they are bolt on at home at a reasonable cost, my mechanic suggests torsion bars as well at either 21/27 or 22/28 with re-valving of the existing Bilstein sport shocks but this costs!!!

Before spending the money It would be good to know if fitting the sway bars make enough of a difference on their own?

Bruce

[jaydubya]

Originally posted by dd74
Only thing is it's much more labor intensive. I believe you have to remove the gas tank for this. I'm not sure, but I'd check first.

The through-body front swaybar install can be done without removing the gas tank - I did it.

[no substitute]

Originally posted by jaydubya
The through-body front swaybar install can be done without removing the gas tank - I did it.

Yep me too. You sort of have to thread the needle but it's entirely doable by one person.

[no substitute]

Originally posted by bruboy


Before spending the money It would be good to know if fitting the sway bars make enough of a difference on their own?

Bruce

The car stays flatter, so yes there is a definite difference. If you're going to compete with it, it's certainly worthwhile. Actually I'm talking about 22mm Weltmeister bars not Carrera bars. I don't know what size the latter are.

[juanbenae]

i put a set of 87 carrera sways front and rear today on my sc without any issues, nor comealongs. i thought i must have done it wrong?? the rear nearly went on by throwing the thing at the car after it was in the air w/ tires off. very painless.

i used the bushings and hardware supplied by the guy i got them from in the classified from a 28K car. they were very fresh and i opted to not buy all new ones, figuring the bushing in the drop links were better than my old ones from 78. all the other sway bushing had been refreshed during my suspension rebuild 1 year ago, i pondered using the older ones but opted too after much "whiest yer in there" thoughts.

the fronts that id heard so much about being a hairball were not all that tuff. i put the bushings (the 2 better of the 4 fronts) in the a arms and started at one side. i put the key in the ignition to free the steering, it made things easier to do by being affroded to move steering from lock 2 lock for accessability. i got one side through the bushing on the a arm and ran it past as far as i could, about till it hit the 1st bend/knuckle. i went to the other side and expected this is wer'd i hit the need for oldman-comealong. it was only about .5" out and i's able to muscle it into the a-arm bushing, by bracing my barefeet off the washer, or was it the drier?. i did use alot of lithium grease to get things moving, and kept all the other body fasteners free. a carpenters pipe clamp was used to pull the front sway into place after id gotten both a-arm ends set & center as i could tell. i knew i's close because there were even amounts of bar stuck beyond the a-arm bushing on either side. the carpenters clamp secured to the center of the aluminum cross member and sway were pulled together. this was to line up the pan and center clamp sway mount fastener holes. i got the 2 nuts & 2 allen lines up and bolted up the pan and center mounts. it did require some screwdrive shoven to keep the bushings centered and i left everything loose till the last moment. this made for moving of the bar in the bushings as to not bind..

i put it on the ground and drove it around and rechecked the amount of bar past the a-arm bushing. they remained even and it was very nice.....

i dont know if the "weathered" bushing made thie easier but i was amazed as to how easy it was after reading horror stories here.. if there is one thing i can say as my mechanical skills increase is this, leave stuff loose til it HAS to be tightened. the more stuff thats loose the more options you have. that and the right tools to tighten it when its time.


disclaimer- im 6, or 7 beers in and listening to ac/dc, so my normal 6 th grade spelling and sentence structure is 2.5 wrenches..

[SC-targa]

I did this simple and cheap mod on my SC and I like it. Not only is there less roll, but the rear bar is proportionaly larger than the SC setup, so there is less undesteer.

Jerry Kroeger

[Superman]

My suspension advisor is the same as Jack's. I think he's perhaps the best in the world. Anyway, he says something like 21/28 torsion bars, Carrera rear sway, and through-the-body adjustable front sway is a balanced and effective setup. Major diminishing returns beyond that.

Now, this is not dealing with the shock issue, of which there are some options, and you can be sure that shocks are quite important to performance. The point though is, that this guy does not agree with the notion that very stiff torsion bars are a good substitute for stiffer sways.

[juanbenae]

i am running a 21/27 t-bar combo and cant wait to try it in concert with the new sways.

[dd74]

I've heard of cars that were in the neighborhood of 2200-2300 pounds running 30mm and 31mm rear bars and not at all needing (at least) a rear sway bar. Hmmm...I wonder how they handle, though. If there could be a difference? Anyone have ideas about this?

As for the through-the-body sway bar, how is it optimal over the sway bar that bolts upward to the chassis?

[UTKarmann_Ghia]

I also did the same upgrade to the later Carerra sway bars and am very pleased with the results. I have less body roll and no problems thus far...

[bruboy]

Ok, there is good support for doing the sway bars on their own, I like the idea of taking one step at a time and evaluating the difference, the idea of less understeer is very good!!

thanks

Bruce
83sc