Rear sway questions

[Chris L]

In my quest to end the marshmellow effect I get while driving, I think I found a temp solution. My stock swaybar skirts the outside of my springs. I am thinking of cutting 5" off each end and re-welding the hole for the link. I cut the swaybar mounts off my old axle, and with some trimming can weld them to the outside of my lower control arm. Would it make much of a difference whether its mounted to the control arm or the axle itself? And would shorting the swaybar make it work the same? Thanks--

[Hellbender]

Chris-- I wouldn't recco cutting and rewelding the swaybar for several reasons: first,it is made of heat-treated spring steel and when you re-weld it, you will remove the hardness from this area, creating a spot that is almost sure to totally fail (probably around a corner at 65 MPH) or bend: second, shortening the "legs" WILL increase the stiffness, but you will be moving the legs much further (during articulation) than the main beam was designed to move, twisting this enough that it could fail (by probably permanantly deforming/bending).

On mounting to the control arms, this will work fine...except...the closer you move the attachment points to the frame pivot, you are decreasing the effective stiffness of the swaybar, ie, it gets "softer".

If you want a stiffer swaybar (cheap) that may work, take your swaybar w/ you to the salvage yard and look for a larger diameter one, check the 4x4 Explorers, they have several different diameters and styles that may work.

Good luck

HB

[Chris L]

Originally posted by Hellbender
Chris-- I wouldn't recco cutting and rewelding the swaybar for several reasons: first,it is made of heat-treated spring steel and when you re-weld it, you will remove the hardness from this area, creating a spot that is almost sure to totally fail (probably around a corner at 65 MPH) or bend: second, shortening the "legs" WILL increase the stiffness, but you will be moving the legs much further (during articulation) than the main beam was designed to move, twisting this enough that it could fail (by probably permanantly deforming/bending).

On mounting to the control arms, this will work fine...except...the closer you move the attachment points to the frame pivot, you are decreasing the effective stiffness of the swaybar, ie, it gets "softer".

If you want a stiffer swaybar (cheap) that may work, take your swaybar w/ you to the salvage yard and look for a larger diameter one, check the 4x4 Explorers, they have several different diameters and styles that may work.

Good luck

HB

Thanks HB.
I didnt think about the heat-treated spring steel, and that was brought to my attention yesterday. I will just have to wait and see what it will take to make the antirock work back there. Thanks again for the reply.