Let's discuss SCCA Stock Class

[ABQautoxer]

Originally Posted by cityhugo

Ur transition might feel great but ur sweeper stuff is going to suffer big time with that bar. u do have some control with the driving style to get some of those sweeper speed back. At the end is all about balance...

Maybe but not necessarily if you get the rear toe right. Bigger front bar = less rear toe in needed. Been there, done that on other cars.

[ayau]

It's been a while since I last checked this thread. Anyone running RPF1 17x7 +42?

I'm assuming everyone is still running on stock dampers. Last I checked, there aren't a lot of options out there right now.

[Sccabrz192]

Originally Posted by dwx

That bar is about 2X the stiffness of the Strano bar even on its lowest setting, it will be interesting to see how the bigger bars play out. I'm mainly going off Sam's feedback and where he felt the bar should be, and I definitely respect his opinion.

Does anyone know (for a fact) what the OE FSB rate is, and where I can find it?... I didn't look for very long, but I just gave up.

I've looked into it, and it depends who you believe... If you back calculate from the Hotchkis bar % of OE, you arrive at an OE FSB rate of 185 lbs/in... Eibach (via phastek) has the OE FSB rate listed on their site at 141 lbs/in... Hotchkis says their softer rate is 500 lbs/in, eibach is 376 lbs/in, those values are listed in their product literature. Sam has provided info that his bar is 185% OF OE FSB rate, so if you go on the Hotchkis assumption, the Strano bar is about 342 lbs/in, but if you go on the Eibach/Phastek assumption, it comes out to 261 lbs/in. I don't think Sam has gone on record as to what the exact rate is, only the percentage of OE...

I HAVE to assume these are straight bar displacement rates, and do not take into account changes in end link angle, just a straight displacement of the relative eyelet position as the bar is displaced.

Yea... I got confused and said forget it

[xwd]

Yeah in the end it is really hard to figure out what the exact values are. You just have to go off the published rates and try the bars out for yourself.

I installed the Strano bar this morning just to get some more practice and do some parking lot testing. Still haven't done any testing but the Strano bar is narrower than the Whiteline bar, the bushings didn't completely sit on the straight part of the bar. I still have the endlinks set to the stock length. Took about 45 minutes to install the bar without dropping the mounting brackets.

[xwd]

So after installing the Strano bar yesterday my car is making a really odd sound on the right side and I can't seem to figure it out. When I turn right there is an almost metallic grinding/creaking noise which only seems to manifest itself with really tight turns. It is continuous in that it happens for as long as the wheel is turned hard to the left, I haven't really been able to test if the noise changes with speed. It is fairly loud. I can't really find any evidence of rubbing anywhere so it's a bit odd... I looked at the wheel turned full lock to the left and nothing is even close...

I don't think it has anything to do with the Strano bar but it's a bit baffling.

[ABQautoxer]

Look if the tip of the sway bar is touching the lower control arm (will be vertical etched line in the LCA). Also since you are using non-OE endlinks, make sure they aren't coming into contact with something. Best way to do this is put the car on ramps along with something to allow you to turn the wheels side to side while on them. Then jack it up and down on the ramps looking for contact as it goes up and down. A helper to turn the wheel makes this a lot easier. I solved some strange contact issues on my Miata this way back in the CSP days. Worse case, shorten the endlink by .5" and see if that changes anything.

[cityhugo]

if is not a clearance issue and If u r using Whiteline end links, make sure all the nuts are tight, esp the nuts that locks the length adjustment. They seem to like to work themselves loose, make sure u use 2 wrenches vs 1.

Originally Posted by dwx

So after installing the Strano bar yesterday my car is making a really odd sound on the right side and I can't seem to figure it out. When I turn right there is an almost metallic grinding/creaking noise which only seems to manifest itself with really tight turns. It is continuous in that it happens for as long as the wheel is turned hard to the left, I haven't really been able to test if the noise changes with speed. It is fairly loud. I can't really find any evidence of rubbing anywhere so it's a bit odd... I looked at the wheel turned full lock to the left and nothing is even close...

I don't think it has anything to do with the Strano bar but it's a bit baffling.

[whataboutbob]

Originally Posted by cityhugo

if is not a clearance issue and If u r using Whiteline end links, make sure all the nuts are tight, esp the nuts that locks the length adjustment. They seem to like to work themselves loose, make sure u use 2 wrenches vs 1.

^This.

Also check where the endlink connects to the swaybar to make sure it is tight. I had noise issues on my driver's side and was finally able to identify that the bolt holding the endlink to the swaybar on the driver's side was not tightened all of the way. This was kinda tricky as with the car on the ground it felt tight, but when I put the front end up on jackstands and the suspension at full drop the load was off the swaybar and I found the endlink mount was loose.

[xwd]

I've been through a lot of swaybar installs and had my fair share of clunking in the past so I made sure everything was tight. So far I haven't encountered any clunking.

I did lengthen the endlinks a little bit with the Strano bar versus the Whiteline one because when loaded the Strano bar was hitting the unibody on the inside, the Whiteline curves further out. I also made sure the Strano wasn't hitting the control arm then.

This noise is a metallic grinding noise and it does seem to increase with wheel speed, very strange. The only time I've heard something similar is rubbing on a heat shield. Ah well it will just take some more investigation, I'll put the car up in stands and I do have two jacks I can use to load the suspension.

[Sccabrz192]

Do you have one of the earlier Strano bars? I know he had an issue with the early batch where the ears beyond the mounting hole were either longer or not chamfered the same way the OE bar is and he did note there was a rubbing/interference issue.

otherwise, try going back to the OE endlinks with the Strano bar, it is designed to be a direct drop-in with OE end links. At least that way you can isolate if it is a bar or end link issue.

[xwd]

I had an earlier one but Sam sent me another bar which is what is installed on the car. I never attempted to install the first one once the issue with it was found.

With the Strano, I made the Whiteline endlinks pretty much the exact length of the stock endlinks. With the Whiteline bar they were a little shorter since the Whiteline bar attachment point is longer and wouldn't rotate past the control arm with the suspension unloaded.

[ABQautoxer]

Are you stock height? If so the second version of Sam's bar should be no issue with the stock endlinks so I agree I would swap those out just to reduce that likely hood. Also I would consider dropping the splash tray and double check the nuts on the mounts though usually that will be a clunk sound like endlink more than a grind like you are describing.

A bit off topic but did anyone else break one of those bolts that holds the splash shield on? I snapped two of them and had to use an easy out to remove them.

[xwd]

The smaller ones in the front? Mine all came out without an issue although I could certainly see them breaking.

I am still at stock height with stock struts and since I'm running CS will continue to be. We'll see where the swaybar tabs are on the MCS shocks. I probably won't get to it today but tomorrow I'll have some help and can get to the bottom of what's causing the noise hopefully.

I thought almost for sure yesterday I cross threaded the 14mm swaybar mount bolt in the front but it was just very tight since the Strano bar didn't really sit straight in the bushing completely. One good thing is if it was cross threaded it can't be all that expensive to replace the swaybar to chassis bracket, on the WRX it's welded to the main crossmember!

[GTB/ZR-1]

I'm abt ready to pull the trigger on Sam's bar. Has anyone else put the revised bar in?

Just want to be sure...