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When I went to grease the front bars, I had to squeeze the grease gun lever a lot harder than what's typical, and then the grease immediately came spurting out from between the metal shackle and the rubber sleeve. I had to take the shackle off, open up the rubber sleeve, and apply some grease manually to the inside of the sleeve. I can't imagine this is going to withstand the test of time.
Then I did the rear bars and had no such problem. It was at this point that I noticed that the rubber sleeves on the front bars had been perfectly smooth inside except for the little opening where the grease is supposed to come in, whereas the rubber sleeves for the rear bars have a bunch of relief grooves in them which are clearly intended to allow grease to get in there.
Here's the rear sleeve with the reliefs visible. Shouldn't the front sleeves have these too?
Anybody else who has Strano bars: did you have this problem? Did I get a faulty set of front sleeves?
Just different variations of bushings over the years. If you use the clear sticky grease it'll hang around a long time. There are greasable versions if you want to change over, but this is not a problem.
That said, I didn't like this, mostly because I can't actually grease them via the Zerk. So, I ordered a set of replacement brackets from UMI (that specific link will work for any 35mm / 1-3/8" bar). They come with bushings, and in the product photo, you can see the grease channels in the bushing. They'll be here today!
The new bushings came as expected, and they do have the grease channels as shown in the product photo. I installed them tonight, and everything is looking good!
did you notice a difference after installing them? Mine are on back order
You know.. I'd like to say yes... The butt o meter says yes... lol...
I still have Koni Sport (yellow adj), Strano springs, UMI LCA's, UMI Adj PHR to install.... I KNOW i'll notice a difference once those are installed....
You know.. I'd like to say yes... The butt o meter says yes... lol...
I still have Koni Sport (yellow adj), Strano springs, UMI LCA's, UMI Adj PHR to install.... I KNOW i'll notice a difference once those are installed....
i have the exact same setup already installed for a few years now. Only thing I’m thinking about changing is going back to as close to stock ride height as possible.
Wish I could say. The car is almost ready for the street again!
(I did a lot more than just swaybars; see build thread in sig.)
The car is now drivable. Still needs an alignment and a tune, but it tracks straight as-is, so I guess I got things pretty close by eye. It also needs new tires, so I'm not super worried about whatever uneven wear might be happening.
I've not yet pushed it hard enough to tell the difference between the BMR swaybars I had before (which were too stiff and made the car tail-happy on track) and the Stranos -- but I pushed it enough to flex the bars a little, and there were no squeaking or rubbing noises, so I think they're greased properly now. Maybe it would have been fine with the bushings it came with, but this way makes me feel better.
I'll post more impressions and stuff on my build thread soon. Need to get my wideband wired up so I can finish the tune!
09-07-2023, 10:30 AM
Trouble greasing my Strano swaybars 
