How can I find out what my sway bar diameters are? And is bigger better?
 

As far as I know, I have stock rear and front sway bars. It is the Recaro so its got upgraded suspension (WY-6 because its a limited slip delete package, why? Don't ask, I have not the slightest clue).
:hmmm:

Looking at some history of the car through some old magazine articles, it looks like it may be 34mm in the front and 25mm in the rear.... Is that a good thing?

Is there a way to confirm this?

Is there a way to determine if the bars that I have are good?


Like I mentioned in other posts, I feel that my car is lacking in the handling department and I have already decided to:

1) Replace the front/rear coils - Spend big $$ on shocks later next year

2) Replace the bushings in the front and rear.

3) SFC's

4) Wonderbar


Thanks!
Chuck

Re: How can I find out what my sway bar diameters are? And is bigger better?
 

I don't know if the bars go bad but the links and bushings sure do,my bird needs all that stuff too,for the diameter get a in/out caliper at the local hardware or home depot,clean a spot of loose paint and junk and see what you have.

Re: How can I find out what my sway bar diameters are? And is bigger better?
 

I don't think 34/25 was a standard size combo. ?? But as for bigger being better. It depends on what you want and the rest of your suspension set up. And what you want to do with the car and how you want it to feel. Do more reading on that. There's a lot to understand and mix and match.

Re: How can I find out what my sway bar diameters are? And is bigger better?
 

Use a Crescent wrench right next to where the bushing goes. (or fixed-size open-end wrenches if you got em)

No your car probably doesn't have, or at least didn't come with, those. Most of those cars, before the IROC, came with 32/21.

Ignore "magazine articles". THE PARTS are sitting there right in front of you. Measure them.

In general, bigger = stiffer. Front should be balanced with rear. If you add bar in the front beyond the rear, the car gets "tight", where the outside front tire is forced to do too much work in turns, making it understeer (turn the wheel, the front tires slide, car goes straight). If you add too much rear bar proportionally, the car gets "loose"; the outside rear tire has to do too much of the work; and it tends to swap ends in hard turns. Neither is a very good thing. Balance is key. That's pretty broad-brush and over-simplified but should get your mind started.

Once you know what size they are, go down to AutoZone, or look at the some of the sponsors of this board, for bushings & end links. You'll want bushings that are the size of your bars (duh) and end links about 2¾" long both front & rear. Get polyurethane greasable bushings and keep em greased.

Re: How can I find out what my sway bar diameters are? And is bigger better?
 

Thanks for the clarification !

Re: How can I find out what my sway bar diameters are? And is bigger better?
 

http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/index.php?showforum=3

you should check this out. do some reasearch. like said before, it takes tuning bigger is not always better.

for example if i had a drag(1") rear bar, i would not want to fly around a corner because, in therory, it would cause oversteer.

there is some great info out there you can read to inform you. herb adams has a book that is a great place to start

Re: How can I find out what my sway bar diameters are? And is bigger better?
 

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Re: How can I find out what my sway bar diameters are? And is bigger better?
 

The front sway bar helps a lot for cornering by preventing a corner from dipping too much as weight is transfered onto it.

Rear sway bars control the movement of the diff especially during hard acceleration. The diff is always trying to roll as the pinion is walking up the ring gear. When it does, it's trying to lift the right rear tire off the ground. While it's doing that, the body twists and is also trying to lift the left front tire off the ground. This body twist can be greatly reduced with a rear swap bar.