Sway Bar Movement in mounts

[Tcrate]

I have an 87 951 and the sway bar in front after use tends to change position in its mounts. Basically as you see from the pictures it moves to one extreme. I have realigned 2x now and keeps doing this. I do track the car and have theories about the cause but the only way I see to keep these even is to put something on the ends to keep it centered. I saw a car at the track where they drilled a hole in each end. Pinned it and put washers between the pin and the end link. I am looking for some other suggestions that might be a little simpler. Pictures shown are with the sway out of the car. The setup shown is exactly how it came out of the car. Right side of car sway bar is all the way through the link. Looking for ideas. Thanks.

[flash968]

i've seen that happen when the main mounts are soaked from power steering fluid

[Tcrate]

These mounts are pretty dry. No oil or grease on them.
I may have answered my own question. I found a 2 piece shaft collar I may put on the sway bar inside of each center mount. Here is a picture of a Jeep application similar to what I think I will try. This will hopefully keep it centered.

[flash968]

i've used those. they work

[Tcrate]

Ok good to hear. I like this better than drilling holes in the sway bars at the end. Thanks.

[emoore924]

Those collars will work. You don't want to drill holes. They'll weaken the bar.

I've had my sways move in the main mounts (not the downlinks) when I'm at the track and I spin -- bouncing over the curbs as I go off. It doesn't always move but when it does, because the bar is shifted well left (or right) of center, it can create some really unexpected handling characteristics as a result.

[OK-944]

Almost seems like shaft collars should be standard equipment? Any comments for (spirited) street use only?

[flash968]

collars will work as a bandaid, but i would address the problem.

this movement is due to a few things, mostly an upset in balance of the car. if there is no oil leak, which makes the bushings slippery, or wear which reduces the friction which holds them in place, the only other time i typically see this on a street car is when the rear ride height is not set correctly, which causes the car to be low on one corner. this causes the sway bar to "walk" every time the suspension compresses. this happens more on track cars, because of the severity of lean, and the fact that the track is mostly biased to one side of the car.

i would carefully inspect the bushings, and renew if they show any signs of oil or wear (obviously fix the leak if there is any oil). then, i would get a good alignment, including rear ride height set.

[Tcrate]

Interesting. I corner balanced the car late last year. Right front was light so I raised it some but it is dead nuts corner balance wise. I don't have the data here but I will go back to my record book and recheck. I did have an alignment done last year also. I have struggled with getting the pull out of this car. I have had it aligned 2-3 times. While it is better it still exists. Thanks for the feedback. I should add this car sees both track and street but it handles quite well. Coilovers in front, stock suspension in rear. It has been lowered.

[flash968]

well, if you had it corner balanced, then that should not be the problem.

pull is usually castor. when you lower these cars, the castor setting be challenging, especially if you lower it too far. when the roll center approaches zero, things start to get weird.

tires can also create pull. swap the fronts left to right for a minute and see if it makes a change. if it does, you have a tire issue.

rear thrust angle can also act like a pull, as can rear toe.

if the front springs are too stiff, the car could squat, and create pull, though it should minimize at road speed.

as for the initial problem, it sounds like you've eliminated the normal stuff, and shaft collars should solve your problem.