Anti-sway Bar Installation

Anti-sway Bar

After waiting for quite a while for delivery of an anti-sway bar, we installed it with minimal effort.  We were somewhat disappointed that the links to the wishbone touched the inner side of wheel when turned to full lock. Called Tom Colby at Speedwell Racing that manufactured the bar to see if we had made an installation mistake. He said, “No, just don’t turn the wheels to full lock position!” Couldn’t believe it because Speedwell Engineering is a very reputable race car prep shop.

Installation instructions were provided by Speedwell. With everything clean, we did a careful visual inspection of the frame rails, anti roll bar mounting pads, and the lower control arms.  It is a very good idea to weld the frame rail seams and also weld completely the mounting pads, which are only partially welded by the factory.  It is very common to have the lower frame rails tear themselves apart from the heavy cornering forces.  With this done, we ran a 5/16 X 24 tap through the mounting pads to insure good clean threads to attach the anti roll bar to the frame.  We then installed the bar to the frame.

The bar may be mounted to the frame with the car raised in the air but the rest of the installation must be done within car at its ride height.  We slid the Delrin bushes onto the anti roll bar and then mounted the bar using the pillow blocks supplied.  We center the anti roll bar and locked down the shaft collars after it was centered.  The anti-roll bar should move somewhat freely in order for it to function properly.   We then installed a rod-end into one end of the anti-roll bar and attached a corresponding bracket.  Then, we swung the bracket up to the lower control arm and positioned it so that the link was vertical.  This is where the 3/8 inch bolt holes should be drilled and bolted to the A-arm.  Now we did the same to the other side.  With the driver in the car the links should be adjusted so that there is no pre-load on them.  Finally, we tightened everything and we were ready to go.