need a pic of rear sway bar attachment

[Trakrat]

The mounting area where my rear sway bar mounting bracket attaches looks... sloppy.
I took off my rear sway bar and I'm guessing a PO broke off the welded brackets and then welded them back on???

One of the bolts had an upside down nut to hold it on, which I thought was odd... isn't the mounting bracket threaded?? (they were all threaded except this one location)


I'd really appreciate it if someone could post a pic of the mounting location of your rear sway bar... I'd prefer 86-89 year model, as I have a 87 year.

If it's truly messed up... then I need to know my options of getting it repaired.

Thanks!

[JRSIII]

I don't have a picture handy, but do a search on "sway bar" and you'll find lots of discussion on this. This is a very common problem and there are a number of upgrades available. I went with WEVO. Others will recommend JWest. Search "WEVO" and you'll find tons of info. If you aren't an experienced welder, this is a shop repair.

[winders]

Jerry Woods Enterprises has the best weld on solution. Does JWest have a solution? I don't think they do.....

[JRSIII]

My memory must be failing me. My apologies. I have been very satisfied with the WEVO brackets.

[Trakrat]

Originally Posted by JRSIII

I don't have a picture handy, but do a search on "sway bar" and you'll find lots of discussion on this. This is a very common problem and there are a number of upgrades available. I went with WEVO. Others will recommend JWest. Search "WEVO" and you'll find tons of info. If you aren't an experienced welder, this is a shop repair.

Thanks... I know it's a common problem. That's why I was wanting to see what a factory rear sway bar mount looks like.
I know what the modded ones look like, and I've searched and seen MANY pics of broken ones...

I just want to compare mine with what the factory/OEM mount looks like to see what may have been modified and what hasn't.

I hope that makes sense.

[JRSIII]

OK so I don't know if these pictures are what you are looking for or not. Mine is a stock setup from an 88 carrera, except that the brackets are WEVO and not OEM. They are geometrically identical, except that the WEVO is more solid whereas the OEM is rolled plate. They are both threaded and neither require nuts to secure the bolts that hold the bushing bracket in place. I've also attached below a photo of my broken OEM bracket before it was removed, and a photo from the Pelican catalog of what an OEM mount looks like.

[Trakrat]

Originally Posted by JRSIII

They are geometrically identical, except that the WEVO is more solid whereas the OEM is rolled plate. They are both threaded and neither require nuts to secure the bolts that hold the bushing bracket in place. I've also attached below a photo of my broken OEM bracket before it was removed, and a photo from the Pelican catalog of what an OEM mount looks like.

OK... thanks...
hmmm... What I'm trying to figure out is that the driver's side mount looks 'bent' or pushed up.
Also... the driver's side sway bar mount has a PO using a nut to hold the screw in place... (aren't the threaded nuts welded within the mount location??? )

The passenger side is more straight (like your last photo)... but it looks like it has a reinforcement plate welded in.

I'll see if I can get pictures and post them up here. I just want to determine if the mounting point has been compromised in some way, or if they just always look like that.

[Goth]

Originally Posted by Trakrat

Also... the driver's side sway bar mount has a PO using a nut to hold the screw in place... (aren't the threaded nuts welded within the mount location???

I've read the threaded portion has been known to strip out, and the quick fix is to just weld in a nut.

.

[Charles Freeborn]

My rear suspension re-build thread, including installing Wevo RARB's
And we're off! '74 Rear Suspension Rebuild

[911 Rod]

The stock bracket is vulnerable to breaking and twisting and I think people have just put gobs of weld on to strengthen them any way they can. I went the WEVO route and have never looked back.

[Goth]

Pics of my 1984 (with thicker 86 sways).

[aston@ultrasw.c]

The problem is that the part of the body you are welding to is not very stout.

Even if you are able to clean everything and get a good weld, the body will likely crack in the heat affected zone.

My (final) solution is this:

Sway bar link bracket weld failed

[KTL]

Like Goth's picture shows, the original style mounts are stamped steel with basic M8 nuts tack welded on the back of the mount. Over time the sheet metal in the mount fatigues from all the loading cycles and either the mount tears off at the curve/bend or the nut(s) pull through the sheetmetal.

So don't replace it with a original style stamped steel mount because it'll just break again. A close friend of mine finally got wise this year after three broken original style mounts.

The Jerry Woods Ent. mount is definitely the most stout of the aftermarket choices because of how it attaches at the torsion bar and at the pinch weld seam. Buckley makes a similar one (like Aston fabricated) but it doesn't wrap around like the JWE.

WEVO's mount is a solid choice too. Yes it mounts to the same sheetmetal location as the original mount. But there's a bunch of surface area there and the mount itself is really robust. The mount itself is not going to fail and i've not yet seen the sheetmetal attachment point fail on the cars i've been around over the years. Not saying it can't happen. Just saying I haven't seen it yet.

[Trakrat]

Originally Posted by KTL

this year after three broken original style mounts.

The Jerry Woods Ent. mount is definitely the most stout of the aftermarket choices because of how it attaches at the torsion bar and at the pinch weld seam. Buckley makes a similar one (like Aston fabricated) but it doesn't wrap around like the JWE.

WEVO's mount is a solid choice too. Yes it mounts to the same sheetmetal location as the original mount.

This brings me more questions though...
How does moving the original location of the sway bar affect the suspension?
For example... moving it forward or backwards by even 1 inch could potentially change the geometry of the load upon the bar.

And depending on the question above, how exact the placement of the mounts on both sides have to be? Absolutely mirrored to the mm on both sides?? how do you even measure it properly when mounting new ones???

[Charles Freeborn]

Originally Posted by Trakrat

This brings me more questions though...
How does moving the original location of the sway bar affect the suspension?
For example... moving it forward or backwards by even 1 inch could potentially change the geometry of the load upon the bar.

And depending on the question above, how exact the placement of the mounts on both sides have to be? Absolutely mirrored to the mm on both sides?? how do you even measure it properly when mounting new ones???

Before I did that I'd look into some aftermarket bars which don't use the stock drop links, and are quite adjustable. The Tarretts are well regarded.

[KTL]

You can't really move the bar too much because the transmission itself and the transmission crossmember gets in the way.The placement of the sway bar mounts is not super critical when dealing with the original style sway bars that use U-clamps and rubber bushings to secure the bar to the chassis. The rubber bushings allow for some misalignment. Still, you want the bar to be evenly aligned so it doesn't encounter too much binding. Even though these types of sway bars bind in the bushings and twist the bushing quite a lot.

Best thing to do is mark where the old mount is placed and use that as your reference. You can scribe a mark where the peak/center of the mount top is and place your new mount in that same location. This is assuming you're using a mount that looks like the original style- like the WEVO mount. If you're using the other JWE type, you're forced to pick your location accordingly and then make sure they're in the same location on both sides.

Don't worry about mimicking the original placement of the bar, since the drop links allow for some relocation of the bar. Charles is correct that the aftermarket bars like Tarett or Weltmeister are nice because of their adjustability, which is a nice tuning feature. Also the adjustable drop links allow you to take the preload out of the bar by adjusting the link lengths to suit how the car sits. That said you can also buy just the links and apply them to your original sway bar

Porsche 911 Rear Droplink Set, 65-89 with 78-89 factory Swaybar

Lastly, if you did choose something like the Tarett sway bar? These are a bit more sensitive to mounting due to their plastic bushings. So you have to make sure your mounts are installed so that the bar isn't skewed across the chassis. The skew causes the bar to bind in the bushing blocks and it won't rotate smoothly. Eventually it'll really wear on the plastic bushing.

[aston@ultrasw.c]

Originally Posted by Trakrat

The mounting area where my rear sway bar mounting bracket attaches looks... sloppy.
I took off my rear sway bar and I'm guessing a PO broke off the welded brackets and then welded them back on???

Some notes on welding:

Remove all oil, dirt, undercoating, and paint.

Get back to clean bare metal.

Now you will need to remove the zinc plating.

The steel is thin enough already, so you want to remove the plating without removing any steel (or as little as possible)

Pay attention to corners, spot welds, seams etc.

Plan on 2 hours of prep for 2 minutes of welding