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weak U irons on Whiteline's rear sway bar

7K views 29 replies 7 participants last post by  uss tigershark 
#1 ·
Okay, so I have bought the Whiteline rear sway bar mainly because I was pissed with changing the bushings of my original bar to Energy Suspension's PU bushings (didn't get them them around the bend no matter what).
Tightening the Whiteline bar the to the rear axle, I realized that the u irons started to give in (no need to say that this reminded me of Whiteline's first upper control arm recall...). Nevertheless it worked alright for nine months but as we have many mountains with serpentines in Switzerland and I go quite fast, the rear sway bar is direly needed and - what can I say - the u iron on the right hand side started to move to the middle of the rear axle until I noticed a clanging chime... I will change the u irons to sturdier ones and use self locking nuts instead of the original ones which is something that Whiteline could have considered in the first place when designing the mounting.dissapointed.gif
 

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#2 ·
You get what you pay for. Try BMR sway bars.
 
#4 ·
Thanks for sharing your experience. I generally use nylock nuts for anything that I suspect may possibly vibrate loose unless it's subject to high temps and then I use metal stop nuts. I think the main advantage to the Whiteline rear bar is that it allows for the widest possible rear wheels. If you don't have to have the widest possible wheels I would use another brand that mounts to the frame like the factory bar does instead of to the rear axle since mounting it to the axle does add to the unsprung weight.
 
#5 ·
There's a technique to getting Energy Susp. laden end links (or any other closed link) around the bends in the bar. It ain't hard but, you have to do it the right way.

Position the link with the arm facing the outside of the circumference of the curve in the bar, lube the **** out of it with silicone spray lube and pull the link around the bend, keeping the link perpendicular to the curve in the bar. Dead simple that way and requires the minimum amount of muscle power.

The setup you have there is a ******** way to mount a sway bar. It's basically designed to fail, no matter how big a U bolt you put on there. It's gonna walk and you'll crush the axle tube trying to get it to stay put. At last move them inboard, fwiw, and butt them against the diff flange.
 
#9 ·
These swaybars stand up to track use with very large race tires, 1.5g+. I used them for 2 years on my car on 315 Hoosiers, and they were used on the red car below with 335 and 345 Hoosiers. Definitely not a design flaw.

I know of many, many fast track and autocross cars with these bars. If they're installed and inspected correctly I wouldn't worry about using them.



 
#12 ·
What brand are you referring to?
 
#10 ·
First a quick disclaimer. I have absolutely zero interest either personal or financial in any of the companies/vendors that make or sell aftermarket parts for these cars. I expect that I will be replacing my own factory ant-roll bars at some point and to that end I have looked pretty carefully at all of the commonly available choices. At this time I think that Eibach has the best choice for me. They have bars that are three way adjustable [ both front & rear ] and are hollow as opposed to the the typical solid bars. This should result in a slight weight savings which dosen't hurt. The only other hollow bars I am aware of are made by Hotchkis and would probably work fine too. Both these bars come nicely finished too.
 
#11 ·
I looked into whiteline for a panhard bar... Seemed like a good deal price wise but found out they're made in China. That doesn't mean they're worthless but let's be honest, Chinese build quality has fallen faster than their stock market.
 
#16 ·
The WL adjustable panhard bar is very good actually! I have it along with the brace and it works great (I needed it to adjust the offset of my axle with the 10inch bullitt motorsports). And don't make a mistake: the mere fact that WL produces in China doesn't mean anything re their quality. You only have to set quality standards and to be willing to finance the costs to live up to them. Remember: iPhones are produced in China too.

Regarding the WL sway bar: I have realised that the technician had installed the u-profiles way to much to the center which is a problem of course since the rod then is moved by 2 force vectors, i.e. there's an angle to make matters worse and to work greatly on the u-profiles. I placed them on the outside now for the time being since my bro will make me aluminium parts to replace the profiles (similar to the ones of RTR tactical performance sway bar)
 
#14 ·
Well if Csamsh uses the Whiteline sway bars then they must work rather well and have definitely been put to work and passed his testing.
 
#15 ·
I went through several. Settled on the WL because you can adjust the rear without lifting the car up at all, with hand tools, between runs.
 
#18 ·
Bottom line is the sway bar CANNOT move under any circumstances like this. That's a recipe for disaster.
 
#20 ·
This is the risk I see: You are putting a serious side load on the axle while cornering, shifting it in relation to the body. The sway bar slides along the axle tube like this one did. You relieve that side load and the sway bar maybe sticks the axle where you left it, forces on, screwing up the geometry of the rear and driving you off the track.
 
#22 ·
I thought the panhard bar and panhard bar brace or a watts link was the main member to keep the rear axle from shifting laterally relative to the body of the car. I guess I can kind of see how the sway bar helps resist this also, however it is very weak spring/member in comparison to a pan hard bar/brace or a watts link which act as compression members only, not compression and bending.
 
#21 ·
One of the things that the sway bar does is try to transfer vertical forces from one side the car to the other or load transfer/sharing of forces acting on the springs. Thus yes the attachment points should be as far out as possible to lower the force in the connection hardware. I call them U-brackets. Body twist Force/Distance between U-brackets or End Links = Force in U-Brackets or End Links.
 
#24 ·
Yes, that's the intention of the sway bar. The axle still moves laterally related to the body under cornering, even with a phb. If the sway bar moved laterally on the axle under load, I think it could jam the axle and not allow it to recenter positively when the load is released.
 
#26 ·
I see your point but then again would you think that the axle really moves that much laterally with the panhard bar holding it in place? Furthermore I would think that either the joints of the endlinks and/or the flexible part of the sway bar will first "react" to the lateral movement of the axle before the part of the sway bar attached to the axle would move the latter.
 
#27 ·
Do you want ANY chance of that rear suspension binding up in its action, in any way? That's what used to be lethal on the old Fox body cars; they had bind built in from the factory.

The Panhard bar actually forces the axle to move laterally under suspension load, because the end describes an arc, due to the angle of the PHB. This is why people go Watt's Link. So, even absent of lateral load force vectors, the axle is moving in an out in an arc under suspension action. Extra lateral movement due to compression of the bushings from sideloading just adds to this.
 
#28 · (Edited)
The Panhard bar actually forces the axle to move laterally under suspension load, because the end describes an arc, due to the angle of the PHB. This is why people go Watt's Link. So, even absent of lateral load force vectors, the axle is moving in an out in an arc under suspension action. Extra lateral movement due to compression of the bushings from sideloading just adds to this.
Now I really see your point! Actually one should go and ask WL and/or RTR if they have considered that movement when designing that system...
... Then again, reconsidering that the arch described by the ph bar is almout neglectible on the lateral scale, maybe the system still works quite alright...
 
#29 ·
The whiteline system according to csamsh has been tested with his extensive road course experience with the u-brackets spaced as far apart as possible to minimize the forces exerted. There probably is not a big safety factor against yielding of the u-bracket components so if they are too close together it would not take much to bend them in my opinion.
 
#30 · (Edited)
Now I have installed the new aluminium brackets and you know what? Everything works fine again! No noise, no lateral movements, no nothing...
and here you can see the result as well as the original brackets bent under use...(okay the pictures are not so good)
 

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