Rear Sway Bar?

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Rear Sway Bar?

Postby rustorbust » Sat Mar 22, 2008 5:40 pm

Is anyone on here racing their factory suspension without the rear sway bar. I was thinking about trying it without it but just wondering if anyone was done it yet.

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Postby cjbiagi » Sat Mar 22, 2008 7:15 pm

There are a lot of variables with any suspension. Depending upon your individual car, the front/rear weight balance, the wheel width and tire size, ride height, spring choice, diameter of the front bar etc. Generally a rear bar is used to balance out the overall roll stiffness and change the understeer/oversteer characteristics. How does your car react now with its' current setup? That will probably determine whether a rear bar, and size of it, is necessary. If your car is oversteering (fishtailing) it may be worth trying it without. Otherwise removing it is probably a step backward.
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Postby rustorbust » Sat Mar 22, 2008 7:31 pm

Well, I had only raced the car with it. When I first put it together I had a set of factory lower control arms and it all bolted together, I have never ran it without it. I just recently made a set of adjustable lowers and I havnt fabbed up any mounts yet for the sway bar so thats why I was asking, just thinking about running it without it before I put it back on. About the fishtailing, if I get the car over a 100 in the 1/8 it does seem to wonder around some. Not sure if thats what you were talking about.

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Postby cjbiagi » Sat Mar 22, 2008 7:54 pm

Oh ok, you are talking about drag racing. I thought you might have meant autocrossing or some other sort of road racing. I'm not a drag racer so I can't say for sure but it may help balance out the traction between both sides, but most drag cars don't seem to use a sway bar so maybe it's not a big deal. They are more for cornering.
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Postby Fasterthansome » Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:07 pm

I took my factory sway bar off around 6-7 years ago and never put it back on.
When I feel it wiggle around its usually tire pressure or spinning.
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Postby rustorbust » Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:05 am

sounds good, Thanks

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Postby 10secvega » Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:33 am

I run my rear sway bar.Helps even the load on launch.
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Postby spyder_xlch » Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:53 am

This might be alittle of the topic but wouldn't the sway bar be more effective if there were mounts (like the frame mounts on the front sway bar) on the rear axle?
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Postby cjbiagi » Sun Mar 23, 2008 10:02 am

Some cars did mount rear bars like that but I don't know if it makes them any more effective.
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Postby hammerdown7 » Sun Mar 23, 2008 2:38 pm

cjbiagi wrote:Some cars did mount rear bars like that but I don't know if it makes them any more effective.


That type of mounting is typically used with rear leaf springs I believe.

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Postby Fasterthansome » Sun Mar 23, 2008 5:23 pm

I watched video of my car launching with factory sway bar.
It appeared that as it tried to lift passenger side it would lift the other side.
I had better 60's without it.

Now the car has an anti roll bar taht attaches to the body and axle housing.
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Postby BigTruckDriver » Tue Mar 25, 2008 3:58 pm

10secvega wrote:I run my rear sway bar.Helps even the load on launch.
Thats what I was going to say. Actually its beneficial to run a bar at the track and most do with a racing suspension. Its not so important to run one in the front of the car and can actually hurt ET. Its not called a sway bar tough its called a anti-roll bar.
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