Sway bar help

[jbrand540]

Can anyone first help me identify my front sway bar from the pictures below and second can anyone provide guidance on their adjustment.

From my understanding the would currently be set all the way loose. My suspension is stock torsion bars with Bilstein's front and rear. The rear sway bar appears to be stock. Should these be this loose? I feel that my car tends to understeer a bit in high speed cornering which I believe would mean I need to further loosen the front sway bar but it already appears to be completely loose. Is it possible that extra body roll in front would cause understeer? Should I tighten it up a bit more or with only create more understeer?

[rsrfan]

looks like a Racers Group bar.

[Jeff Alton]

Yep, those are from TRG.

Cheers

[911s55]

What do you mean by high speed corners, in what environment (street or track) what tires and pressure are you running, alignment settings,?

[jbrand540]

Do not use the car for track driving. I am reffering to freeway on-ramps, twistys. etc.

[911s55]

When's the last time you checked your tire pressure, what is it and realation to rear pressure?

Temps have been below normal around here lately, so if no changes since summer they'll be down quite a bit.

Low pressure in the front will cause your car to "push" or understeer.. Start with the easy free fixes!

David

[911pcars]

I agree with David. Adjust the tire pressures as much as possible within the recommended pressures, then adjust the sway bars if needed.

I'd think you'd want the security of slight understeer in high speed corners. Nevertheless, to create more oversteer/less understeer, you can adjust each drop link so it creates the longest lever (loose) and/or use a smaller dia. bar.

Along with any front bar adjustments, you can also tighten up the rear sway bar (make the arm length shorter and/or increase the dia. of the sway bar).

Practice your steering correction motions. You will need quick hands along with a patient right foot with high speed oversteer.

Aero devices such as front spoilers and rear wings also play a role in high speed vehicle characteristics.

Sherwood

[Gordo2]

Originally Posted by jbrand540

My suspension is stock torsion bars with Bilstein's front and rear. The rear sway bar appears to be stock.

In case it wasn't clear from the other posts: your sway bars (both front and rear) are not stock and appear to be a very nice/high end aftermarket set up from a race team/company called "The Racer's Group" or TRG.

Based on the fact that someone (previous owner?) upgraded your car with top end sway bars, I would be surprised if they stopped there and didn't upgrade your torsion bars as well. I don't think there is any way to tell if torsion bars are stock without taking stuff apart.

Passing this along so you don't get bit by the upgrade bug and launch into purchasing suspension components - looks like someone already did on your car.

Good luck, Gordo

[stlrj]

Whenever a 911 has been lowered, negative camber increases and the first thing you will notice is increased roll with front end push along with less effective braking, the result of reduced tire contact patch. Increasing tire pressure or making the suspension stiffer will only make things worse as you will soon discover.

Solution? Optimize your camber settings to maximize your tire contact patch for conditions and your problems will disappear.



Cheers,

Jose' "aka Joe" Garcia
Redwood PCA since 1976
74 911 w/ 86 3.2

[jbrand540]

Thanks for your input. In removing the other wheel today to continue other projects. I noticed the sway bar settings on the passenger side were a little different, about 3 ticks lower on the sway bar arm. I adjusted the driver side to match and took her out for a spin. Unfortunately it was raining and bit of traffic but the front end feels a lot tighter and more predictable. I am not entirely sure it is understeer that I was experiencing so much as the steering being imprecise. Some corners would feel great and then I would hit one where the steering would feel imprecise and take a lot of effort to turn in.

I do wish that I knew if the torsion bars were stock as I suspect since the PO had lowered the car and upgraded sway bars he would probably have gone to the next step.