Black91n/a

Ok, so long story short I want to convert my Racing Beat sway bars and my stock rear sway bar to be adjustable.

My thoughts were to cut off the ends of the bars cut a vertical slot into them then insert a plate (3/8"?) with a notch in it and weld it in place (so that one notch fits in the other and there's overlapping material on all sides of the joint). I figured this will give lots of weld area for a good strong bond and allow me to have as many holes as I want, where ever I want and shouldn't cost much at all to do.

Does anyone know what kind of steel the bars are made of?

Thoughts? Comments? Experiances?

jgrewe

iTrader: (1)

Jim Susko and I used to add round stock to the ends of the FB's front bars. We would chamfer the ends that were to be mated leaving about 1/2 the dia. at the ends. This gave us plenty of weld build up so we could grind the area smooth for a slotted tube to go over it. A rod end was bolted to this tube and when tightened it pinched the sway bar and stayed in place. We also had a way that used holes drilled in the bar and used pins to keep the location.

I wouldn't worry about what kind of steel to use. The amount of deflection involved is minimal so even mild steel won't take a 'set' from being twisted too far. Your only dealing with the ends that don't really twist so go with what you have laying around the shop that you can make your adjusters work. I've seen 1 1/2" square, 1/4"wall steel tube used as a rear bar on a VW with no problems.

sereneseven

I don't know what RB makes they're bars with but if i had to guess it would be 4130...hopefully heat treated but maybe not. the method you have discribed sounds pretty good, the key is to keep the blade in a parallel arc to the load throughout the suspension movement. if you ask me you should be able to get away with .250 up to about 5 inches unsupported but as you stated weld over lap is key i would fisheye the end and continue the slot another 1.5" or so and in a perfect world re-heat treat.

Black91n/a

Thanks, I'm mostly worried about metal compatibility, because I know from high school metal shop that SS and mild steel don't weld together that well (not when I'm doing it with the badly set up MIG anyway, but that's another story). I'll farm out the welding anyway, since I don't have a welder.

sereneseven

I wouldn't worry to much chances are its mild steel or 4130 which are complety compatable. I would just use mild steel for the extension piece.

Black91n/a

Ok cool, thanks.

SoontobeLS1'd

mazdatrix sells adjustable swaybar links.

Black91n/a

I think you totally missed what I'm getting at. What I want is to replace the single hole ends of the bars themselves with ends with several holes so that the stiffness of the bar can be changed by changing where the endlink attaches to the bar, which changes the lever arm on the bar, changing its stiffness. I've already got endlinks like the Mazdatrix ones.

SoontobeLS1'd

cool. thanks for the clarification.