Quote:
Originally Posted by strat61caster
@ ZDan sway bars rotate freely, splitting holes is not a problem, it's a simple spring as long as endlinks do not preload the bar. |
It is a simple torsional spring, with bendy lever-arm ends, *with links at the ends of those lever arms connected to some part of the moving wheel/upright/control arm assembly*. As soon as you have different lever arm lengths on the two ends, *you are putting preload into the bar* with what would ordinarily be symmetric L/R bump and droop.
If you try to compress the front say, 2", under braking, with both ends at same stiffness setting, having the same lever arm length, the swaybar rotates freely in its mounts and does nothing. Even load left/right.
BUT:
Now let's say you have one end set at a the stiffer setting, the lever arm at that end is (guessing) ~8" lever arm. Other end of the bar is at the next-softer setting, say ~9" lever arm.
Now what happens when the front tries to compress that same 2"? If the end with 9" lever arm moves up (relative to the chassis) 2", with a rigid bar, that would mean the end with the 8" lever arm only moves up (8/9)*2" = 1.78". The bar is *trying* to enforce a 0.22" difference at the end links while the car under braking wants both sides to compress the same amount.
0.22" in a stock bar, at 191 lb/in = 42 lb., means you end up UNloading one end by about 21 lb., and loading up the other end by 21 lb.
You're corner jacking the car!
Bad idea, and for 99% of us who track these cars totally unnecessary to get that fine with tuning roll stiffness anyway.
I suspect people got the idea this is OK because it *is* totally OK to disconnect one end link and let the sway bar passively move with the connected end. So they probably concluded that if *that's* ok, surely any asymmetric setup is, right? Nope...