Weltmeister Sway Bar Quistion.

[1976 TN Porsche]

How many have installed a Weltmeister rear sway bar kit on a non rear sway bar car. Do they work well. Thanks.

[Walt Fricke]

If this is the one where you clamp the sway bar mounts to the torsion tube, I have heard people say they work better than the stock sway bar mounting system. Because the stock rear mounts are a bit weak when you run over rocks or othewise put unwanted pressures on them from hitting things (as in dipping your wheels over corner curbing at a track).

Though nowadays you would weld on reinforced stock mounts and be OK.

I have no personal knowledge of them, however.

[911pcars]

Originally Posted by 1976 TN Porsche

How many have installed a Weltmeister rear sway bar kit on a non rear sway bar car. Do they work well. Thanks.

I have a 19mm bar. Hardware is okay. The weak link is the 5/16" bolt that attaches the drop link to the spring plate. It could be beefier but adequate for a street car. You realize there are sway bar mounts to attach (weld) to the chassis.

Other brands have better hardware; rod bearings on both ends of the drop link. Also better geometry at different settings.

Must use with a front sway bar.

Sherwood

[tcar]

Be careful, you must balance with a front bar. The stiffness of each should be compatible with the other or you can have severe handling problems.

I've also heard that weltmeister is not the best.

[Walt Fricke]

Weltmeister is not top of the line. But I think it may be the best value, comparing marginal gain to marginal cost for the improvement you get from the various other ones. At least, it is adjustable, which the stock parts are not.

I've run them on my SC since the late '80s. I drool over some of the others from time to time, but the money ends up going into some other gofast.

[HarryD]

The Weltmeister front and rear sway bar is an adequate system.

I have the adjustable fronts on both the front and rear of my car and they work just fine. Like Walt, I know of the other brands but in the end, Welty offers a very attractive cost to benefit ratio.

This is the install in my car:

[Walt Fricke]

The most important thing about the drop link attachment to the spring plate hardware (circled on upper left in Harry's first photo) is to have copious anti-seize on the Allen bolt's threads. When shops adjust the alignment they like to disconnect the sway bar, and if this bolt won't come out of the adjuster into which it is screwed, it may get snapped off.

Walt

[mkingham]

I ordered one (from our host) and the kit was missing several pieces. As mentioned before, the bolt that attaches this unit to the arm seemed like a real weak point in the design.

After speaking to PP, I switched to the Tarett Engineering sway bar kit. After comparing the two in person, the Tarett piece was obviously a higher quality kit.

Like most things in life, you get what you pay for

Mike

[Walt Fricke]

While that bolt is a weak link, I've not had one break in 20+ years of use other than the one shop problem.

Don't know what I'd purchase were I starting out. If I were feeling flush I think I'd go with the Smart Racing systems.

While the Weltmeisters are adjustable, some of the other systems are more easily adjustable, which certainly is a plus, at least until you hit on what your particular car and style like best. Or until your feel for things is such that you adjust your bars based on track conditions, tire heat cycles, or other really fine tuning. I found I seldom change mine, though that is probably a reflection on my tendency to drive around what the car is doing rather than adjust the car.

The clamping action on the Weltmeister rear bar has been an issue for me. As you tighten the clamp, the "ears" through which the bolt goes bend together. At some point, this can reduce the friction between adjuster and bar, and the adjuster can slide when in use. To deal with this I drilled a hole through the adjuster and into the bar, and put in a pop rivet. That caused things to quit moving, but made further adjustment less attractive.

A plus for the man from Tennessee who started this discussion is that he doesn't have to weld anything. Maybe not much of a plus for those of us who have a welder, but a plus for others.

[Brian 162]

In the past 2 years I broke the bolt on the left and right side. I ordered 4 replacement mounts from our host so I have spares.
Since a corner balance all is good.
I'm happy with the product.

[911pcars]

The WM drop link bolt to the spring plate is an internal hex head bolt (5/16-24?). typically around 180K ksi. This is the strongest commercially-available fastener and readily available unless you want to venture into some aerospace AN fasteners. Don't substitute with any 5/16" fastener.

I haven't broken one yet, although I've lost a drop link due to it being loose (aka brain fade).

I've noticed the Tarrett bar uses a similar bolt-to-eccentric connection, but their fastener is about 3/8" (or metric equivalent). The bolt is also secured with a nut whereas the WM threads into a blind hole in the eccentric.

Sherwood

[Walt Fricke]

On my track only car I have removed the ecentric (after its job was done and everything else on the spring plate was tightened down) and substituted a different, larger bolt and some other stuff to do this job of holding that end of the drop link. Something to think about should you have problems with the WM that the advice above does not solve.

[tobluforu]

I have had mine on my72 for 15 years with zero issues, but I also changed out the front drop links so they are spherical on both ends as well as the rear. I added hose clamps on both sides of the rear bar where the bar itself is connected to the mount so the bar will not shift/slide.