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Pre-loading rear sway bar

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Old Oct 30, 2005 | 09:10 AM
  #1  
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Default Pre-loading rear sway bar

I have read many posts on how to pre-load the factory bar. Some guys are pre-loading the drivers side and others are pre-loading the passenger side.

I want to clear this up for those people as well.

I have read Madmans posts about adding 15lbs to the passenger rear tire. In order to accomplish this he says that cranking up the drivers front spring will transfer weight to the passenger rear. I assume this is for us guys that don't have adjustable rears. I remember this from oval track racing.
I could do this with the front Hals, but I have the car sitting the way I want (I think).
In another forum someone posted the directions for adjusting a wolfe bar, but it was for a Mustang. (Same thing or not???) In short it says install the bar then jack up car until the front tires are off the ground two inches then tighten the passenger end link on the bar until the passenger door corner is 1/8" lower than the drivers.
Can someone please verify this for me and I will be on my way.

so I want to pre-load the factory bar.
I want to do this for learning purposes and I am not 100% sure on weather or not I want a drag anti-roll bar.

Any help would be great.

Thanks
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Old Oct 30, 2005 | 06:07 PM
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I don't have the ability to test the car at a track before next season starts up here, so I was hoping I could get the car better set up for next season.

Anyone able to help, or should I call Madman?

Thanks

Terry
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Old Oct 30, 2005 | 11:29 PM
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Shimming the sway bar or jacking the spring should
do it but you would want to know the spring rate
and the lift force generated by the axle torque
reaction if you wanted to go at it like science. But
probably easier to cut and try an extra segment of
endlink spacer (or washers), keep adding until you
lose left tire traction instead of right. I don't think
a fixed preload poundage is going to give consistent
results from one car to the next. But you can find
the tipping point by enough trying.
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Old Oct 31, 2005 | 07:56 AM
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I just installed a Wolfe Racecraft rear swaybar on my '94 and it is the shiznit.

Even blowing off the tires, the car stays almost perfectly straight. You can adjust the end links up or down to correct the car if it is darting to one side. My chassis guy told me that you always adjust the passenger side (once you have your basic set up in place). That way every one is on the same sheet of music.

The only drawback is that to drive the car on the streer, I remove one end link so the bar doesn't bind. I say it's a drawback only because I'm lazy and now I have to crawl under the car and reinstall the endlink when I go to the track or if I have a sudden need for traction on a saturday night :wink:
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Old Oct 31, 2005 | 09:18 AM
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Jimmyblue are you saying keep adding a piece to the drivers rear until you loose traction? If you are, that would make sense.

TWS, thanks. It is the basic set-up that is the most important factor. I like the sudden need for traction on a saturday night.
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Old Oct 31, 2005 | 09:42 AM
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I would think that you would want the passenger endlink longer than the drivers due to how our cars tend to lift the front driver's tire and squat the passenger rear more. Shortening the driver's side endlink should put more load on the passenger side and equal the force wouldn't it? Or do I have it backwards?
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Old Oct 31, 2005 | 09:55 AM
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Bain,
I've spoke to Madman about this via PM and the correct way is to disconnect the rear swaybar, get the 15lbs of extra weight on your passenger rear ( by jacking up your drivers front spring), then re-connect the bar.
This info has all been stated by Madman on this board over time, it's just that it is not all together in one spot. So I'm not giving away any trade secrets.
The key to re-connecting the sway bar or drag bar is that once the passenger rear is loaded with the extra 15lbs, is the fact that the passenger rear end link now needs to be SHORTER. This is the part people are missing.
You could also shorten the passenger end link if you didn't have adjustable front springs.
So that's it, finally I can go set the car up and sleep well at night.
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Old Oct 31, 2005 | 10:24 AM
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Thanks for the great information and putting it in one spot
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Old Oct 31, 2005 | 10:42 AM
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No problem. It took awhile but I'm glad I finally got it sorted out.
Now the issue of getting my adjustable torque arm set perfect. I have it pretty good, but not perfect yet.
Nice car by the way. I was just checking out your website. Your car goes like mad. I noticed you purchased the Yank torque arm/trans mount bracket. I decided to get a spohn arm. Do you like the yank piece? It seems to be working for you. Did you get the pinion angle you wanted from that?

Terry
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Old Oct 31, 2005 | 10:44 AM
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I just noticed that you have the trans mounted spohn torque arm? correct?
I bought the tunnel brace one.
I think yours is the better choice. Damn too late.
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Old Oct 31, 2005 | 11:44 AM
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It seems to have worked pretty good so far. I decided to go that route because of the duals and clearance issues with the tunnel mounted one. Thanks for looking at my website eventhough it is in a great need of an update
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Old Oct 31, 2005 | 01:37 PM
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Ya I'm kicking myself now for not going that route. I want to do some kind of duals and now I have this big piece of **** in my way. I guess I'll just have to get more inventive with the tools.
I don't think I noticed what cam you were running. I'm assuming you are going to a bigger cam; the T-Rex or is that the cam that ran the 11.0
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Old Nov 1, 2005 | 11:48 AM
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So the key is to shorten the passenger side end link for the rear swaybar? I was told to either shorten the driver side or add some to the passenger side rear? How do you measure the 15lbs extra weight on the passenger side, 4 corner scales needed? You just tightened up your driver front Hal until you had 15# more on the pass side? I would like to do the same thing. LMK later Clint
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Old Nov 1, 2005 | 12:03 PM
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Originally Posted by Terry'sToy
Ya I'm kicking myself now for not going that route. I want to do some kind of duals and now I have this big piece of **** in my way. I guess I'll just have to get more inventive with the tools.
I don't think I noticed what cam you were running. I'm assuming you are going to a bigger cam; the T-Rex or is that the cam that ran the 11.0
I have changed some stuff since running the 11.0
Setup for 11.0 run:
Lunati 244/250 .615/.615 116+4 lsa
TCI 4400
3.73 gears
26" ET Drags
Dynoed 345 unlocked

New Setup:
T-ReX v.2 242/248 .608/.612 110 lsa
Yank 4800
4.30 gears
Fast 90 & NW 90 TB
28" ET Drags
Dynoed 381 unlocked before the 90/90
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Old Nov 1, 2005 | 12:22 PM
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I recently installed the Wolfe and it did wonders for how my car launches... straight as an arrow all the time!!! It's OK on the street as well... obviously the car is not setup for handling

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Old Nov 2, 2005 | 04:55 PM
  #16  
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T/ALT1, if you have access to a set of scales, your in business, if not then you could rig a bathroom scale up to measure the 15lbs. Either way disconnect your bar, jack up the front spring some, then re-connect the passenger side of the bar, but with a shorter end link. Alot of guys think the other way is right (putting extra spacers in the passenger side) when that takes weight off of that tire.
The cars suspension works like an "X". Cranking the drivers spring, adds to the passenger rear.

Bain, thanks for the info. That first cam you had was kinda huge. Any track results form the T-Rex?
vmax1500, that bars works awesome. Did you install it yourself? If so could you give us some install tips. like once you had all the welding done, how did you adjust it. Did you jack the front end up and then tighten the passenger end link? Any help would be great.
Thanks everyone
Terry
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Old Nov 2, 2005 | 05:13 PM
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Hi Terry, I had my speed shop do the install... it did not seem too hard, it took them a couple of hours... it does require welding skills... they basically followed the instructions that came with the sway bar... bang for the buck it's one of the best mods I have done to the car... this winter we are building a new motor to take advantage of the how well the car leaves

Andre
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Old Nov 4, 2005 | 08:50 AM
  #18  
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Thanks very much.
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