Rear Anti-sway/Anti-roll bars...

[Nunyas]

So, I've been looking at these, and can find very few picture examples of them installed on a 'B. The only ones I've seen so far were for after market kits (Ron Hopkinson kits?). Anyone ever adopt the '77-'80 stock rear anti-roll bar to their earlier model cars? I'm thinking about adding it to my '76, but I'm curious as to how much fabrication or welding may be necesary to add it in. None of the websites or catalogues that I've seen so far have detailed diagrams of how the bar connects to the rear axle. Also, how does it come pair to the 'Ron Hopkinson' kits?

And uhm... where do you get the Ron Hopkinson kit now days? I don't see any references to aftermarket/uprated rear sway bars on Moss's website, and I didn't see any references to aftermarket, uprated, or add-on rear anti-roll bars in the last Moss, VB, or Brit-Tek catalogue that I got.

 

[adam90009]

You can weld on the brackets, or you can get a late rear end and swap it with the one you have now.

 

[aeronca65t]

Just for the record, not everyone is fan of rear sway bars on these cars. When driven really hard, they can make a car very tailhappy. Might be OK for auto-x.
I would actually look at a panhard rod before fitting a rear-sway bar.
If you do choose a rear sway bar, try to opt for a thinner one (say about 1/2").
I know three amateur club racers with MGBs...none have rear sway bars and all have panhards rods. Sprite are obviously a similar setup: none of the Sprite racers I know use them either. I tried a 5/8" rear bar on my Sprite years ago (the car has a 7/8" front bar)...I took it off the same day.

Not trying to start anything here...I realize that some of the other guys make feel different. It's always useful to hear various opinions before you decide.

 

[Nunyas]

thanks for the input. I've thought about the panhard rod, but one thing about the designs I've seen so far (like this one) makes me wonder how strong the axle mount is. The ones I've see so far the panhard rod uses a clamp for the axle attachment. So I wonder what's to keep the clamp from slipping either latterally (up and down the axle tube), or radially (rotating around the axle tube)? Is it friction alone that you're relying on to keep it in position? And if it slipped wouldn't that throw things really out of alignment? The addition of this mod seems interesting to me, but I wonder if I can rely on it not slipping during normal driving or when I get 'frisky' with a back road...

Do you guys with the racers weld the clamp to the axle or do you just use the clamp as is?

 

[aeronca65t]

That's a really good question.
I build my panhard rod from scratch after looking at units on other cars and I wondered about this.
Initially, I used an industrial adhesive on my clamp to give it a bit of extra holding power (and I tightened the clamp bolts to about 60 ft. lbs). It didn't move left to right but it did start to creep concentrically about the axle.
So I built an additional "stay" that came off the panhard clamp and went over the end of the axle U-bolt. My axle U-bolts have enought exposed thread to put an extra nut on the end to hold this "stay" fast. Works fine now.

 

[Bruce74B]

HMMMMMMMMMM I like this idea! I am in the middle of replacing my rear springs and have wondered about a little more beef for the suspension. I passed on putting 7 leaf springs (BGT) on my Roadster as I didn't want the "raked" look, and didn't want to have the handling problems with the Sway Bars when driven hard, but the panhard system might be what I am looking for. Any more ideas on this might be interesting to a lot of us /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Bruce /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

 

[Nunyas]

Aeronca - Do you use your panhard rod with anti-tramp/traction bars? I'm curious of what was causing your panhard rod's axle mount to slip concentrically. Was it the up down motion of the suspension from going over bumps? Or was it because of the winding unwinding of the axle due to torque being transmitted through the drive train?

If the slippage was due to torque, then it may be a good idea for me to get both anti-tramp bars and the panhard rod together as a set. Although, anti-tramp bars may be slightly over kill for me. The only time that I notice any "wheel hop" is under hard acceloration on low traction surfaces (e.g. wet asphault). But if it means that it'll let the panhard rod do its job better then they might be worth the little extra expense.