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What is everyone using for sway bars . My suspension was installed by PO I believe it was a " kit " that used c4 corvette pieces but the front end width has been narrowed a lot making the factory front bar too wide . I've done a little snooping though the junk yards and didn't find anything in the right width . Is it possible to cut a section out of the factory bar and weld or bolt or will this make it too stiff or brittle ?
If you apply heat to a sway bar you have destroyed it, I had one that was too wide too and when I asked the manufacturer that was the response I got so I used my original I had purchased and moved the anchoring points and now it works fine..
You can heat and bend it, but you will lose some effectiveness of the bar as it will lose some of its temper. I have heat and bent a bar to fit a '51 F1 years ago and as it had no bar before, the bent bar was a huge improvement.
You could use 4130 or 4140 steel and bend cold but it will be tricky to get the shape. Bear in mind that a shorter bar will increase its stiffness. It might be easier to make a solid bar than a hollow one. The diameter should also come down a bit but not much. And ideally it should be designed with some adjustability too.
A sway bar is designed to stabilize if you start altering the effectiveness of it you are better off not having one the way I see it..
Unless you don't have one already...adding one, even one where the spring/temper is lost, still adds stiffness and opposes roll forces. It's not like the car leans and the bar bends and the car stays leaned over... The bar still has elasticity even after heating.
Originally Posted by Justboy
You could use 4130 or 4140 steel and bend cold but it will be tricky to get the shape. Bear in mind that a shorter bar will increase its stiffness. It might be easier to make a solid bar than a hollow one. The diameter should also come down a bit but not much. And ideally it should be designed with some adjustability too.
The other option is to use a straight bar with fabricated arms. Maybe like this:
I guess I'll try to find a narrower one and attempt bending it first . Build info is erratic tube or shaft , hardened or not , weld or not hard o find the answers
There are aftermarket buildable ones that one end is splined and you cut the other and then weld the arms on ( welder series ) I believe and custom ones but again by the time us Canadians get things from stateside we have to double the cost and I'm trying to keep this a budget build and 5-6 hundred for a sway bar isn't exactly budget
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