So I came outside this morning to my car not starting, hood struts shot when they were good yesturday, and this:


Their is a 3pt edelbrock stb, and a wonderbar on there and I managed to snap the thing?

The only undue stress I can think of is yesturday I took a corner too fast in the rain, and hit some sand. I went into a spin but got it under controll fairly quickly.

Has this happend to any of you guys or is it just a freak thing? I'm debating weather to throw on the spare 36mm hollow I have or the 34mm solid.



Edit: Looking at the pic now it looks like it's rusted out inside the bar, maybie that's what did it in although the metal on the break is clean.

 

I've been road course racing with hollow GM bars for years now, sticky track slicks and bumpy tracks like Lime Rock and Pocono...never snapped a swaybar.

There was definitely a contributing factor in your breakage, maybe the internal rust as you pointed out or something else going on.

 

Not good that makes me want to buy some spohn bars lol.

 

I the upper left hand corner of the bar, it looks like it might have been cracked. Not surprising considering that is where the bushings wear. Take a good look at the break, i bet there is a deep scratch on the outside near the break. I wouldn't hesitate to put the hollow 36 on there, but i would (as i am planning to do) polish it up, remove all paint, inspect for cracks and repaint it.

 

I'm still trying to figure out the connection between the broken sway bar and engine not starting and hood struts bad. Why a broken sway bar would cause those other problems is beyond me. lol

Lon

 

Well I was running fuel through the swaybar to expand the capacity if the tank, so that would explain the not starting. I'm still lost on the hood struts though.

 

you can run fuel thru the swaybar??????????

 

Are you for real?!?

 

What do you think?

 

Actually PyRo9862 has a hidden nitrous system and stores the funny juice in the sway bar. He's only saying the fuel runs through it to throw us off.

I'd check the bushing to bar interference. It may be that the bushing was binding preventing the bar from twisting. That would defintely shear it (and allow the N2O to escape negating the effectiveness of the nitrous system ).

RBob.

 

I thought that it was helium or hydrogen to lighten the front of the car a little bit…

 

The only thing that comes to my mind is maybe an angry neighbor. You didn't borrow any tools you forgot to return, did you?

 

Im thinkin vandalized

 

just the other day i broke my 36 mm sway bar in the same location and probably from the same reason, rust. i came across this just from the corner of my eye one morning and i was amazed to see it broken, well i got another ready to bolt on asap. I'll post a pic asap.

 

here it is.

 

glad i live in california! my bars have no rust, the car too.

 

Glad my car will be in the garage and never see rain again I hate rust altho it is kinda fun to fix sometimes.

 

Looks like that's been broken awhile, maybe that hard steering just popped it out of the mount.

OR...you built up too much under hood heat and it radiated into the sway bar causing the NOS to overheat and force it's way out Next time install a sway bar internal pressure gauge and keep the pressure at about 1000psi.

 

what he said ^^^ lol

 

Wow, that looks awful.

 

Alot of times the tire rubs on the bigger sway bar under severe turning(u-turn,Lk to Lk).Perhaps when you spun out in the rain.The tire may have been rubbing while rotating & exerting a little too much force on the swaybar.Thereby shearing it off at the mounting bracket?Extreme example,but plauseable?perhaps!Maybe?

 

I've never heard of them rubbing. Interesting theory but it was a left turn and the left side broke so if either side was rubbing it would have been the right.

 

How do you know if your swaybar is solid or hollow? My front swaybar is the ginormous one (36mm, I think. Been a long time since I measured it, and I don't have a metric caliper)

 

Running fuel threw the sway bar must be kidding.
but it is as funny as the person
who said he used a hole saw to cut holes in his
unibody frame to lighten the car and I think
he really did turn his unibody into swiss cheese.

 

Of course he's kidding. You can't run fuel through your blinker fluid reservoir like that. C'mon, everybody knows that.

 

If it was a left hand turn & you spun out.That means the rear of the car swung to the right.Making the front tires point as if you were turning right.This could make the tire rub on the bar(they do rub).Assuming you didnt let go of the wheel of course.

 

All 36mm bars from the factory are hollow. Look near the ends of the bar, you will notice drain holes.

 

Drain holes? Thought those were pressure relief valves from the factory...

You know GM thought of everything.....

 

Dude I was thinking the same thing. Damn I thought my car was dirty and ****. Until I saw some of these midwestern rides. **** you guys have ti bad.

Will

 

Thats not right, some WS6's had solid and some had hollow bars.

 

really, a solid 36mm sway bar, huh. learn something new everyday i guess.

 

All 36mm GM sway bars were hollow. The 34mm was available as solid or hollow from GM.

 

that's what I thought. Now the question is, did any WS6 cars come with 34mm bars?

 

Not that I know of, no.

 

I've seen solid and hollow 36mm bars.

 

Interesting, the only solid 36mm I've seen are aftermarket. I've never spotted a solid 36mm at the junkyard. I just did a search, and nobody on TGO has heard of solid 36mm OEM pieces neither. Do you have a PN for the solid 36mm?

 

reviving from the dead...

I just got a 36mm SOLID from an 85 WS6 t-top car. No part # on it. Looks like its been there its whole life.

 

they are out their, but i have never seen one.

how much more does it weigh compared to the hollow bar?

 

ill weigh it tomorrow, its heavy