FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

hi guys,
I want to connect my sway bar mounts to the body of the car instead of the preferred method of connecting the mounts to the chassis rail..... Can I effectively do this??  I spose I'd have to strengthen the body point where the swaybar  pins go through....
thoughts?
Shannon.

Hi Shannon,

Without seeing your idea.

In general, sway bar mounts are designed to be anchored to a solid structure of the car (which the rails are) to help resist movement.  The bar under load is effectively a ""spring which counteracts the forces placed on it.

The mounting points will be subject to some pretty high forces, so you would want some plates at least 3mm thick and large in surface area to spread those forces.   You may find the body cracks where the plates end.

Ive always wondered about the effectiveness of a sway bar on a leaf spring rear end.. there isn't much lateral loading, and rebound can be controlled easily using a good pair of shocks?

just some thoughts.

Cheers

Ed

I think you misunderstand the role of both shock absorbers and sway bars.

A shock absorber dampens spring movement, in particular the oscillation from compression to rebound to compression to rebound, etc., that you would experience if you had no shocks. A stiffer shock also effectively adds spring rate, in that it resists initial movement. (However, unlike a spring, a shock does not "want" to return to an at-rest position. The piston does not care where it ends up; it only wants to resist any movement at all.)

A sway bar also adds effective spring rate, but only when one side of the car is loaded more than the other. The increased spring rate is intended to come into effect mainly in corners, and it affects only one side. The increased spring rate comes from the torsional twisting of the transverse part of the bar, caused when one end link is in a different plane than the other. Hit an undulation in the road and both of the sway bar's end links are pushed upward the same amount and the torsional effect does not occur. But go into a corner and the suspension on the outside wheel compresses. This compression pushes the sway bar end link on that side up, toward the floorpan. That force is transmitted through the transverse part of the bar to the end link on the other side, at the inside wheel. But the weight of the car on the inside wheel is telling the endlink on that side to stay right where it is. That resistance to upward movement on the inside wheel vs. the upward force from the outside wheel is what twists the transverse part of the sway bar. This is what adds effective spring rate to the outside wheel. The additional spring rate reduces compression, which reduces body roll.

So in other words, the shock and the sway bar are doing completely different things. Adding a sway bar does not stop the shocks from damping.
__________________

thanks Mark,

Sorry for sounding ambiguous.

Your description of the sway bar operation is great, thanks.

so what are your thoughts on mounting the sway pins through the body?

Thanks for the replies Gents.
I went back to the shed and re-assessed the situation.... I ended up mounting to the chassis rails as I spose I should.
I was originaly worried about not having any room left after installing the swaybar for the twin exhaust pipes, but it has all worked out OK.
Thanks again.

In case anyone is wondering I have split the topic and moved the "Respect" thread to main board for wider discussion and to keep the swaybar thread clear of other discussion.
(Please don't vote me down :P )

Sounds like you have your problem solved Shannon, for anyone who doesn't want to or can't attach their swaybar to the car King springs has one that bolts to the diff and the arms go rearward and attach to the springs, I fitted one to Mezzas EK and it worked really well.
               Pedro

Hope you don't mind me using your pic Gary, this is the sway bar i was talking about, much easier to fit
 Pedro

(http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk227/Pedrosme/001_Copy_2.jpg) ($2)

Pedro

I made some diff mounting brackets out of some 3mm RHS and Mig'd them on.
Way better than the clamp set up.

Cheers
Craig D