Home made sway bars.

[Tabcon]

Based on what a high quality sway bar runs for, I was considering making my own. All the components for one are readily available and I could even make one from titanium for about half the cost for a new one.

Has anyone here made their own or had one custom made?

I'd like to see some photos of some installed if anyone has any to share.

 

[CurtisJ]

Do you know about this company's products? https://www.schroedersteering.com/SwayBarPage.html

You could also make a sway bar from scratch, but it's easiest to modify an existing one (e.g. from a junkyard) to suit your purpose. That's what my friends' did on their racing MGB:

B-Stinger Racing's 1972 MGB Race Car

You'll find photos of all sorts of sway bars here: www.BritishRaceCar.com

 

[freds4hb]

Nice install! Did you have a measurement on the sway bar before the install? Your pivots look nice and stout, also is there any worry about the mounts to the suspension at the base (is that welded or a new drop below the shock mount).

Fantastic work!

 

[trfourtune]

just remember these are springs and require spring steel. It's nice to have the front bar as hollow tube, instead of solid to save some weight (tr4's are front heavy to begin with). You should not heat up a sway bar to bend it since you will loose the temper. Most front sway bars for TR4's (non stock) are from 3/4"-1". The length of the arms has a significant effect on how thick a bar you use.
Go for it.
Rob

 

[Monkeywrench]

Tab,

You can assemble your own "Nascar style" sway bar. There are a few TR's floating around with this set up. I don't have any detailed photos, but a fellow racer of ours runs one on his TR3
https://www.hsrrace.com/HSR/photogal.nsf/plinks/HSRP-7TRT8F .

The biggest thing you see people do wrong when installing a sway bar is that they don't shim where the mounts meet the frame. You want the bar to move pretty easily, not bind up.

 

[BoyRacer]

Tab, My suggestion is that you first determine that your car would truly benefit from a rear sway bar. I don't know about TR4s but I do know Healey 3000s. I put a rear sway on my 3000 when I first started racing it. Why, because it was a thing that you put on race-cars, right? Well, it created massive over-steer. If you need it, great. If you don't, you could be swapping ends. Not a good thing in the heat of battle. Talk to some of the other fast TR4 drivers and ask if they are using rear sway bars. The slow ones wouldn't know one way or the other.

 

[dougie]

I fully agree with Richard. Talk to the fast guys or just sneak a peek at their chassis set-up. Most veteran vintage racers will offer sound advise when asked.
As mentioned before a rear sway-bar doesn't always enhance the handling of a big 6 Healey. Rear trap bars do however and here's a photo of the one's I made for my car.

Dougie

 

[aeronca65t]

Yeah, ditto on the rear bar for me too.

I got one for free and put it on my race-Spridget for one practice session.....then then took it off. And gave it away.

No wonder it was free. :wink:

I can't say if rear bars are worthwile on TRs. I'm sure a good-sized front sway bar is useful.
For Spidgets, a panhard rod on the rear axle is useful.

<span style="font-style: italic">Nice *rear* disk brakes, Dougie!</span>

 

[Twosheds]

Paddock Wisdom in the TR community states that rear sway bars not be used on the live axle TRs.

 

[Monkeywrench]

Regarding a rear sway bar:

It ultimately depends on several things. Type of diff, car set up (spring balance front to rear), type of competition, and driving style.

A locker or welded diff, might be better off without on, where a Quaife or Salisbury diff might like it to a point (too much bar will cause the inside wheel to lift, hurting your drive off a corner).

If your car is softly sprung in the rear compared to the front, you may want one.

A smoother driver might find they need a rear sway bar, where a jerky driver might not want one.

You might find that the car is undrivable without a rear sway bar on a race track, but the opposite is true on an autocross course. On the street, you shouldn't be driving to the point where you can tell if it has one or not.

Start out by not running one, and go from there.

 

[MadMarx]

If your car is softly sprung in the rear compared to the front, you may want one.

A smoother driver might find they need a rear sway bar, where a jerky driver might not want one.

Very well explained!
Seems that I belong to the "smoother drivers" group and find myself happy to run a rear swaybar. Combined with a welded diff and stock springs at the rear the car is neutral and fast enough in most cases.

Cheers
Chris

 

[Monkeywrench]

Exactly!!

It would be safer to start off with no rear bar, until the driver knows what they want and they can add one and continue making it stiffer to suit their style.

 

[Tabcon]

I considered installing a Quaife or Salibury, but with the exchange rate, they sort of lost their appeal. Nice to have one, but not at these prices.

I'm fabricating a Watts linkage set up right now and was also wondering about the addition of a rear sway. I suppose I could go ahead and install one anyway and try the car with and without.

 

[tony barnhill]

Do you know about this company's products? https://www.schroedersteering.com/SwayBarPage.html

You could also make a sway bar from scratch, but it's easiest to modify an existing one (e.g. from a junkyard) to suit your purpose. That's what my friends' did on their racing MGB:

B-Stinger Racing's 1972 MGB Race Car

You'll find photos of all sorts of sway bars here: www.BritishRaceCar.com

Interesting setup! But, what's the bar behind the axle? Looks like another sway bar.

 

[MadMarx]

The bar behind is a panhard rod.

Cheers
Chris

 

[tony barnhill]

Ah, gotcha....but, how are they gonna install 'anti-tramp' bars?

 

[MadMarx]

anti tramp bars are along the leaf springs. Some have them above the springs, others under the leaf spring. They remove the windup of the leaf spring under hard acceleration or braking. The longer the leaf spring or the distance between axle tube and the spring itself (spacer) the more the bars are needed.

As far I remember the Healys do have them.

Cheers
Chris

 

[tony barnhill]

I know what they are....my question is"how/where would he mount them with that homemade swaybar setup"....if he's racing, he'd rather have anti-tramp bars than a sway bar when he already had a panhard bar, IMO.

 

[MadMarx]

Depending on what he is going for.
If he is more drag racing then the tramp bars are the way to go.
For racing on normal tracks I would prefere the sway bar.
With the sway bar the balance of the car is adjusted. Also the Panhard bar does rise cornering speed while the tramp bar is pretty useless during cornering, only weight that needs to be carried around.

But to answer your question:

I would install the tramp bars above the axle tube and leave the sway bar under it. Reason: with the sway bar under it you can adjust it quicker than removing the wheels first when the sway bar is above.

Cheers
Chris

 

[tony barnhill]

Well, my anti-tramps are basically where he mounted the anti-sway....I may experiment with an anti-sway to see how to fit both.

Though I've done some work centering my rear end so it can't move left to right working with Dave Headley of Fab-Tek.