Superior Suspension Swaybars Upgrade

[TME_Steve]

Think I'll hold off fitting mine till a few more people have run these for a while. I'm not in a position to be getting the control arms sorted should they fail. I've just seen how much heavier the rear bar is as well and not sure the weight sacrifice is worth the possible handling benefits, mine seems not to roll as it is.

I wouldn't have thought the weight should bother you as the bar itself is mounted to the car, not part of the unsprung mass, like a wheel or control arm. The rear bar will give you less understeer but that's not always such a good thing. The mounts are ridiculously light, even for the std bar imo. That said my car has probably covered more km's with these bars on than anyone elses, as ET was the first to fit em and I rack up serious km's....

 

[PeteGT]

Would you mind showing us what your strengthened mounts look like? Did you weld a chunkier bracket onto the existing control arm?

 

[TME_Steve]

I don't have any pics with me and the car is at the panel beaters getting a fresh coat over the front of the car (goodbye mismatched paint and stonechips).

But I'll try to describe it for now. The standard bracket is made from pressed metal (lucky to be 2mm) running in a z shape, so it runs along the control arm, across it where the droplink bolts to it and then along the other side of the control arm. I left the existing bracket there, repaired and filled the hole where it had been elongated (even the side that wasn't broken, the hole was elongated). Then used a piece of 5mm angle cut to follow the shape of the standard bracket and mounted this on the outside edge of the std bracket (closest to the wheel so the drop links are still bolting to the same position, yes the drop links had plenty of thread) and some 3mm flat running along the bracket that runs toward the centre of the car. Welded it all up all the way around, drilled out the new holes, sprayed it with coldgal and then black and all done. Trust me the drop links would break before the mount now.

When I get the car back (late next week) I'll try to remember to take a pic.

 

[TME_Steve]

Just realised I do have a pic before the welds so I have scribbled on it. The arrow is the side I kept the reinforcing to....

 

[TME_Steve]

OK, I thook some pics, sorry for the poor focus but you get that.... Here is how they look now.

 

[PeteGT]

Thanks for those photos, doesn't look like something a competent fab shop would have trouble with. Did they bother to post-weld heat treat the control arms afterwards?

 

[TME_Steve]

I wouldn't/didn't bother, the arms are so heavy they fell like they are solid so.... The strength issue wasn't with the arm itself either, just the bracket shearing at the bolt hole so.... Besides the rubber bushes are still in the arm so any heating would mean replacing them too....

 

[twisted32]

Found my rear left mount pulled through (not cracked like yours steve) today as well when I fitted new Whiteline HD endlinks. Did not have the time or materials to fix it at the moment, so just did a bit of 'bush mechanic' and fitted them with a few 40mm washers to distribute the load until I can do a similar repair.
My Selbys bars have been on around 24000km's.

 

[TME_Steve]

My LHS was elongated around the hole so I'd guess that's what it was going to do. MY RHS was so damn tight it had to crack rather wear the hole I think

 

[AKKO]

Hmmm been experiencing some groaning/clunking noises on uneven road surfaces .
Was kinda hoping it wasn't one of the struts but I'll check this and the rubbing issue out as well now.

 

[twisted32]

Finally got around to reinforcing my rear sway bar mounts on the lower control arms like Steve. Since I have the Whiteline HD endlinks which have a longer stud than stock, width of the repair was not an issue, so I reinforced both sides of each mount with a piece of 3mm, 50x50 angle. I can't see them breaking any time soon. Next time I will probably break the rear sub frame mount points.
For anyone running any HD rear swaybar, I would suggest fitting 40mm washers or custom made backing plates (even without welding them), to distribute the load more evenly to avoid breaking the mounts in the first place. With the stock set up, all the force is applied around a 14mm odd hex point on the endlink, and the nut (about 20mm flange).
As a bonus, now most of the rear end creaks/knocks are gone!

 

[unclepaulie]

+1 for gusseted rear mounts. Makes everything just a little better

 

[TME_Steve]

I couldn't believe how light weight they were....

 

[Cameron McPherson]

Dumb question in an old thread, but does anyone know if the factory drop links/ sway bar end links on the rear work with aftermarket rear sway bars?

 

[pretzil]

Dumb question in an old thread, but does anyone know if the factory drop links/ sway bar end links on the rear work with aftermarket rear sway bars?

That is what I am using for my cusco ones. The cusco bars are the same size just thicker so I don't see why different ones would be needed.
From your photos though, yours aren't OEM are they?

 

[Cameron McPherson]

Mine aren't oem, no. But the one that was on the bracket that failed is munted so I won't be able to reuse it. Figured it would be easier to source oem ones than aftermarket if it makes no difference.

 

[pretzil]

Mine aren't oem, no. But the one that was on the bracket that failed is munted so I won't be able to reuse it. Figured it would be easier to source oem ones than aftermarket if it makes no difference.

Ah, I thought you were asking if yours failed because it was oem with a cusco bar

 

[Cameron McPherson]

Nah, just making sure I didn't have to get an extra specific part.

I think it was quite clearly a fault of the flange part on the lower control arm. As Steve said earlier in this thread, the metal would be lucky to be 2mm thick.

 

[pretzil]

The metal is definitely insufficient, but plenty have run cusco without needing to bulk it up. Selby on the other hand...

 

[jungle]

That because Cusco are weak as piss
Go Selbys or go home...