Bending a tubular sway bar?

[69427]

As thick as that bar looks where you cut it, it almost seems like you could tap it and use heim joint ends.

I agree. I'll admit I never thought about using a heim in that direction (horizontal, if I understand you correctly). I haven't looked up the load specs of a heim that size, but it would be operating in a shear type loading. To be honest, I spent more time than I liked just dealing with the linkage issue. I don't like short links due to the angularity issue when the suspension moves up or down, and most every dual vertical heim setup I tried ended up leaving the connecting link being very short, causing a lot of side force (shear) on the heim, rather than just compression/tension forces. I looked at the McMaster-Carr website while I was working on this, trying to find a compact heim type assembly, but didn't see anything that looked like it would work or be strong enough. So, currently I'm using a heim on the A-arm bracket and nylon bushings on the bar eyes, which gave an acceptable link length.
The present setup seems to work okay, but I might just look again at the M-C website and see what the shear specs are for a heim with about a 7/8" end threading.
Thanks for the idea, Tim!

 

[69427]

Ran a track day at Putnam Park on Friday with a Porsche group out of Ohio. (I think I may have had the least expensive car there. :amused Anyway, the track has some decent higher speed corners, and with the Nitto tires on the '69 it just felt like I was getting a little roll in the corners. I currently have the F-car 30mm hollow bar on the car (with shortened arms) and I think I might try going up one size if I can find one in a junkyard this fall. The '69 was pretty neutral in handling, so I'm not thrilled about possibly causing a big understeer condition as a result of increasing the front bar size, but if so I've got a couple options to balance it out I suppose. I have the original rear bar from the '69 that I can transplant (or find a suitable shape rear bar off something at the junkyard), or finally install the '84 Z-51 rear spring I've got hanging on the wall in the shop. I currently have the base '84 rear spring on the car, and the Z-51 spring is about (IIRC) 20% stiffer.

 

[TimAT]

You know there are several places you can get good grade Heim joints around locally?

 

[69427]

You know there are several places you can get good grade Heim joints around locally?

I'm drawing a blank at the moment. Where's a few places to take a look at their selection?

 

[69427]

Got bored the other day and decided to install the '84 Z51 rear spring on the '69. As usual, I had to narrow the spring about two inches on each side to make it fit the narrowed '84 rear suspension on the car. As the Z51 spring is about 20% stiffer than the base '84 spring I had on it I decided to bump up the front (coilover) springs by 20% also (375# to 450#) to both keep from significantly upsetting the f/r balance, and to reduce the nose dive during hard braking. The next outing is just an autocross, but I'm hoping to get some feel for how the car responds with the spring change, and then I'll go from there making the necessary tweaks to get the balance where I want it.

 

[TimAT]

A couple of places come up first- Midwest Motorsports about 68th and State KCK, and Avparts- I-35 and Lamar, turn left- building right across the street from the stoplight at Merriam Drive.
You'll like Avparts- all sorts of surplus aircraft tooling- drills, milling bits, reamers, structural and sheet aluminum, AN hardware, and that's the short list.

 

[mrvette]

A couple of places come up first- Midwest Motorsports about 68th and State KCK, and Avparts- I-35 and Lamar, turn left- building right across the street from the stoplight at Merriam Drive.
You'll like Avparts- all sorts of surplus aircraft tooling- drills, milling bits, reamers, structural and sheet aluminum, AN hardware, and that's the short list.

I"m jealous, but there is a joint I ran across here in Jax...of a similar description, enough boltz to drive me nutz.....but it's back when building that BDSM gear....been a while....

:harhar:

 

[69427]

A couple of places come up first- Midwest Motorsports about 68th and State KCK, and Avparts- I-35 and Lamar, turn left- building right across the street from the stoplight at Merriam Drive.
You'll like Avparts- all sorts of surplus aircraft tooling- drills, milling bits, reamers, structural and sheet aluminum, AN hardware, and that's the short list.

I'm trying to remember if Midwest Motorsports is the place I went to that you recommended a while back. Pretty decent speed shop I recall.

Avparts sounds like an interesting place. I'll have to check it out.

Thanks.

 

[69427]

Got bored the other day and decided to install the '84 Z51 rear spring on the '69. As usual, I had to narrow the spring about two inches on each side to make it fit the narrowed '84 rear suspension on the car. As the Z51 spring is about 20% stiffer than the base '84 spring I had on it I decided to bump up the front (coilover) springs by 20% also (375# to 450#) to both keep from significantly upsetting the f/r balance, and to reduce the nose dive during hard braking. The next outing is just an autocross, but I'm hoping to get some feel for how the car responds with the spring change, and then I'll go from there making the necessary tweaks to get the balance where I want it.

Was back in Indiana last week visiting old friends, and ran an autocross while I was there. I had some concern about the roll stiffness balance after just making spring changes, but the car was reasonably predictable with the change (once I got the course memorized). Also, the front end dive was reduced enough where I didn't hear the spoiler scraping the pavement under hard braking. The car exhibited some oversteer on left hand turns (somewhat expected due to the rear spring change) but a bit of understeer on right hand turns (unexpected). I suspect that I have the corner weights off (misadjusted) on this first outing. Until I can find a great deal on wheel scales somewhere I'll just keep adjusting the springs at the next track day until the car feels a bit more similar in both left and right hand turns.