Sway Bar question

[jovial_cynic]

Now that my engine is pretty well buttoned up, I'm getting it ready to take it over to Buttonwillow raceway to get some spirited driving in. The only thing I have left to bolt up is the sway bar.

The car came with a larger-than-stock sway bar... it's a 1" bar that mounts in the stock position, but because I have an SR, there's a little bit of interference. I've read through a few threads about different mounting locations, and it looks like under the LCA with some stand-offs to support the bar will do the trick. I won't have a problem doing that.

The angle of the sway bar is based on how close to the LCA the bar is mounted - bigger bushings obviously move the mount point further away, whereas bushings that are too small will cause the sway bar to interfere with the LCA itself as it moves up and down.

Is there an "optimal" angle for a sway bar for the 510? I'm guessing that because under/over the LCA seems to be a matter of convenience, there's not a ton of precision that's involved, but are there any details I should consider before getting the sway bar fitted?

Thanks!

[datzenmike]

Never heard of mounting it under the LCA, this is interesting. Question...  Won't this place the bar ends and links very close to the road? Not worried about a race track, worried about public roads and the bumps, debris and raised manhole lids.

 

I would imagine you would want the bar to be as horizontal as possible to roughly match the LCA.  Swinging the ends down 6 or more inches is quite an angle and it is swinging in an arc so the ends will move slightly forward too.

[jovial_cynic]

Running the sway bar beneath the LCA isn't that uncommon:

 

http://www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=23738

 

Yes, it puts the end link closer to the road, but the outside end of the LCA is relatively close to the wheel. I guess a bad pot-hole could cause a problem, but if the end link is tight against the LCA, it shouldn't be an issue. I hope.

[INDY510]

Byrons car, in the link above, has raised LCA's and raised T/C rods, that's why he has room for the sway bar underneath. It's only "common" on race cars ... why not use a bar made for a front sump swap?

[datzenmike]

Running the sway bar beneath the LCA isn't that uncommon:

 

http://www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=23738

 

Yes, it puts the end link closer to the road, but the outside end of the LCA is relatively close to the wheel. I guess a bad pot-hole could cause a problem, but if the end link is tight against the LCA, it shouldn't be an issue. I hope.

 

The bar ends can't be the too close to the LCA because it would bind. The bar and the LCA swing in two different arcs. The links between them would allow some give but not if they are too short..

 

 

Bottom picture...

Looks like a scrape to me. Notice the Heim joint to prevent binding?

[jovial_cynic]

INDY510 - scarcity seems to be an issue; I haven't seen any front sump sway bars available.

 

datzenmike - you are right. I didn't mean tight up against the LCA, even though that's what I wrote. I just meant that the LCA has enough clearance to avoid the ground, so a sway bar end link that's close to it might not be an issue.

 

I'll keep hunting for a sway bar that's meant for my setup, but there's an autocross class this month that I'd like to attend, and I'm not sure I'll get one in time.

[INDY510]

I wasn't joking about Byrons car having raised LCA's and T/C rods ... FutoFab sells a front sump sway bar, and there's sometimes a DGR style bar on ebay (but not today)

[510T]

FutoFab bar is on backorder... with no ETA

 

maddat.com.au has them.

[jovial_cynic]

INDY510 - Huh?  I didn't think you were joking. That actually helps me get a better understanding of why the under-LCA mount point made sense in that application.  As for Futofab (and everyone else), everybody is on backorder.  Sigh.
 
I wonder, though, is there anything other than ground-clearance on a low car that is a problem with simply taking the under-mount route with the stock sway bar? I've been scratching my head about this for a while, and because I'm at work, I can't just get under my car and take a closer look.
 
I posted this on the realm, so I'll just copy/paste here:
 

I'm at work so I can't get under my car at the moment, but as I'm thinking about this, I must be missing something. If mounting the sway bar beneath the LCA and fabbing up some stand-offs is all that I would need to do, it seems like everybody would be doing it instead of trying to source a front-sump sway bar.

Ground clearance is obviously a concern, but my car isn't terribly low. As long as the bar isn't clamped down directly onto the LCA, there shouldn't be any binding issues that I can picture.

Is there anything I'm forgetting? I'm going to tack up some blocks for the stand-offs to see how it fits and then I'll just jump on the strut tower to see how close everything is before I drive it. In the meanwhile, this seems too easy to work properly... which has me concerned.

 

Can you think of anything? This feels like a redneck solution, but I can't think of why it wouldn't work.

[510T]

I think ground clearance is the main concern.  I see no other problems...

 

except the lack of pictures ;)

[Dime Dave]

FutoFab bar is on backorder... with no ETA

 

maddat.com.au has them.

 

Front Sump bars are in stock at FutoFab. 

Datsun 510 Font Sump Sway Bar

 

Any questions please feel free to contact me.

[jovial_cynic]

I finally got a few pictures taken.

 

In order to get the front sway bar mounted, I needed to measure how much the bar would need to stand off from the body of the car. 2 3/8", according to the tape.

 

Here's one of the stand-offs I made:

 

Here you can see the sway bar mounted beneath the LCA:

 

Front Sway bar installed. Ignore the orange goop; I just haven't gotten around to cleaning it up yet.

 

Here's a couple of shots of the ride height:

 

Front:

 

Rear:

 

And there's some sway bar on the rear; I don't know anything about it, other than it was pretty ground up on the bottom from the car being so low. That happened before I got it.

[scooter]

That's not bad at all, I'd strengthen those mounts a bit more, but otherwise I'm going to do the same thing to my car.