Broken Charlie Bar sway bar- please help

[Tony'z911]

**CORRECTION: Bad news for me- this is a Charlie Bar Replica.
This morning I spoke to a friend at EBS who contacted Charlie and had him look at my pictures of the bar to see which parts I needed to fix the bar. Charlie then called me to unfortunately inform me that the bar is actually a replica of his product and that my bar was not repairable. His parts are not interchangeable with my bar.
Does anyone think my bar can be repaired? Someone would have to somehow build a mold and make a new hexagon bracket that would be welded in place of the broken bracket. I know the bracket would see a lot of stress since it is the point of attachment. Would the new piece and the weld be able to take the stress??? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Original Post:
I attended a DE at Summit Point ~2 weeks ago and in the last couple of laps of the morning session I heard a clunk. After coming into the pits and checking out the car I learned that I had broken one of my rear Bar- sway bar mounts. I was able to remove a piece of the bar and finish the day, but boy did the car handle a lot different! As you can see in the attached picture and in the ones in my album- (see link to my albums below- Album labeled- Broken Charlie Bar) that the piece that broke is where the short bar attaches to the bar that runs across the bottom of the car.

I'm looking for assistance in determining how or what I need to do to fix the sway bar. It looks to me like the bracket that broke was welded onto the end of the sway bar. It also looks like the spherical mounts that bolt the bar to the underside of the car & the mount stabilizers that keep the bar from sliding around were slid onto the bar before the end brackets were welded on. Does anyone know where I could send the bar to be fixed? Will they be able to repair this bar or will I need to purchase an entire new bar?

TIA for any replies.
Again- there are more pictures located in My Albums, click link below- the Album is labeled: "Broken Charlie Bar."
-T

[andyu911]

I have charlie bar for mine too. Your pictures are kind of dark. However, you can call the manufacturer see if they can help. If you have BA's 911 handbook, you can find their number at the back. Let me know if you need their number.

Andy
'87 Carrera

[Tony'z911]

Please see correction in original post.

[TimT]

I dont think those would be repairable.

If you look at the part that clamps around the hex shaped piece, you can see rust in the the broken area, this means that there was a fatigue crack in the metal, and that this failure started weeks or months before failing at the track. the higher cornering loads at the track did this piece in.

[andyu911]

BTW, how can he tell yours is a replica?

Andy
'87 Carrera

[Tony'z911]

Andy- I could not tell the bar was a replica, but Charlie himself viewed the pictures and saw a few differences between my bar and it's components and the bars that he makes and their components. The way that he explained it, it seems as though whoever made this bar might have sold it trying to pass it off as an actual Charlie Bar which most people know is a quality piece.

Tim- I see what you mean about the hex bracket being rusty. The bolt that held the hex bracket clamped down tightly also sheered off and if I remember correctly it was rusty looking as well.
I was thinking that the triangular mount could be slid away from the end of the bar and the broken hex bracket could be heated and “un-welded” from the end of the bar. Then a new piece could be fabricated and welded back on. This is probably not possible and would not be able to hold up to all the stress that it would see at the track.

It looks like I’m in the market for a new rear sway. :/ Any recommendations on a good but inexpensive rear bar?

-T

[andyu911]

TRG and Smart Racing make very nice sway bar. Not cheap, but it's one of those "once and for all" deal.

Andy
'87 Carrera