Improve Handling: Make a Sway Bar
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Alter your car's handling balance by tightening up one end. Front Wheel Drive cars like a lot of rear bar, so we make one! (Actually, my second one.... . Still infinitely better than the factory one).
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I have been searching for a rear sway bar to reduce understeer in my car and lamenting that there is nothing produced for it. Or at least nothing for a reasonable price that I can find in Canada! And then I stumbled upon your video! I was amazed! Even more so as it slowly dawned on me that I recognized the route you were taking on your test drive! Why, we're practically neighbours. Which is good, as I don't have a bending machine. Or welding skills. But I do still need a sway bar.
Love it when physics stomps on dogma.
You are a fine teacher sir, thank you for being that.
Built one for an autocross car back in the 80's... works absolutely great as long as you don't exceed that elastic limit as you said. Probably going to build a pair for my Mini since they want stupid money for them (and you have to order out of the UK).
Reminds me of the "good old days", when you could get cool stuff out of the JC Whitney catalog! Pre-internet days!!
If your 1st version hasn't twisted, that would be proof that mild steel is ok. Great video! Subscribed!
Wish my hs shop teacher was as awesome as you are ! Fml you ever restored same baby blue and white square body I had in high school wish I still had it mine was identical and factory my dad gave it to me and I drove it to bbt central hi when I was 16 my shop teacher let me build my second truck a 1970 chevyII truck c10 super cools stuff u have I’ll be checking out further ! I want you to teach my teen !!! Haha your priceless !
Burnaby Central? My first four years of teaching was at Burnaby North.
I’m sorry about your colleague that passed away. Thanks for being a shop teacher!
Appreciated! He is one of the very few people who truly inspired me to become the person I am. An amazing man.
Looks sweet, I bet it livens up the handling really good.
I got a 28mm (1 1/8”) rear bar for my mk4 Jetta a few months ago and it was the best purchase I’ve ever made.
My only regret is that I didn’t get a 32mm bar
1" SHD40 pipe will be next....
1.25" SCH40 pipe is next....
4:47 I intend to replicate your work here but a question on the mild steel thing. If manufacturers use spring steel, but mild steel works, why do they use spring steel? Is it that the range of elasticity is higher so it’s just a safer bet?
I believe (and I could be wrong), that a higher-alloy steel will have a higher yield strength. As long as your suspension doesn't take the component past its yield point, you don't need the alloy. I have also found many OEM bars that were clearly not spring steel. Also - my next sway bar will be 3/16" plate, initially U-bolted to "box" the axle, and then welded into place once I settle on how wide it should be.
oh wow, really interested in that idea. Sounds easier. You may well have already seen it but if you search “Julian Edgar autospeed” on a search engine and check his DIY articles there is one in there about alternatives to traditional ARBs. Sounds like that’s what you’re thinking perhaps? I have thought about buying a second axle and cutting the main crossmember out and splitting it in two, then welding the back side over my axle to stiffen it up. It should contour well but would need hammering on to be snug I guess.
Wow, there's some really good articles on there. If I understand you correctly, you're thinking of essentially "doubling" the thickness of the axle? That would definitely make it more rigid, but I bet boxing it with steel plate would increase rigidity even more with less of a weight penalty. I haven't done anything about boxing my axle; I've been caught up in other things for a bit. (grin)
@@GregWellwood correct but my axle is like an indented tube rather than a piece of angle iron, so welding another backside on it is only adding half. It requires purchase of another axle so not as cheap as other methods. REALLY interested in your idea though. Might try that first. It sounds similar to what Julian Edgar did with the u-bolts and plates.👍
I have a 1967 mustang with a 1 1/8th sway bar made from carbon steel id like to cut the ends off weld new ones for heim joints do you think I would need to heat treat it
Only one way to find out (grin). (edit: I would try it)
Stiffness goes up by (larger bar/smaller bar)^4.
I have a festiva with an identical rear suspension. I wonder if this will help. I keep playing around with spring rates trying to eliminate body roll
Some believe in doing it all with spring and no bars, but by the time you have enough roll resistance, bumps really upset the car. I believe in relatively soft spring so you don't upset the car, and get the balance you want with bars.
@@GregWellwood am going to build a 3/4 sway bar see how it behaves on track.
Is that a dead solid axle rear suspension
Or is that a crossmember
It's a "torsion beam" axle - it _twists_. The bar reduces some of the twist. On any other suspension, this wouldn't work.
Neat. Try making one out of gas pipe!
That would be this one: ua-cam.com/video/PGrkJdp5jkk/v-deo.html
I have a sway bar which is recently removed from a vw beetle . So im going to planing install.it to my austin a30 as a front sway bar. When im installing it looks like i need to bend it from different places and weld too. Is it good or bad to done that kind of stuf to origial sway bar material?
Many sway bars are made out of basically spring steel. If a file will cut it, it might just be normal steel.. If you cannot "cold bend" it, you can heat and bend it, but if it is a spring steel just let it cool in air, do not quench it or you might make it brittle and it might fracture in use. You could quench mild steel and it might be a tiny bit harder, but at least you won't make it brittle.
Mild steel sway bar... And they allow you around children. :)
And wearing gloves!! The horrors! :)
Good one, yea mild steel will be fine, particularly if you are just trying stuff out, and hell of a lot cheaper thank chromoly!
its not mounted on anything to transfer load to the other side to work. looks cool tho
But it DOES work. You should see the torsion beam axle twist by itself! It's adding to the beam. It works.
@@GregWellwood it may feel more predictable to tie both sides together but its not an anti roll bar. thats not how sway bars/anti roll bars work at all
It appears to "anti" the amount of "roll" the chassis is getting, by limiting the "independent" movement of the rear suspension. You're going to need to give me a thorough explanation of what you believe, and not just an "Oh no it doesn't!"
@@GregWellwood anti roll bars work thru articulating load transfer not by means of limiting suspension movement NOT with a solid piece of metal. what youre doing is as good as replacing a shock with a rod to stiffen up the suspension.
your bar is not mounted to the chassis to be able to transfer load the way an actual stabilizer bar transfers load.
kind of like changing shocks to solid rods, sure it kind of works but lets see you drive over a bump on one side where the distance from the mounting points of your pretty bar are now 6" apart and something will get ripped out.
now if you had a stablizer bar that mounted to the chassis to endlinks/droplinks than you woulda been ok.
solid works for leaf springs not for stabilizer bars
my first comment literally describes how an antiroll bar works.
if you change the side mounting brackets to connect to an end link or drop link and weld a mounting tab on each side of the axle then use some bushings and brackets to mount the bar to the chassis than it will be an anti roll bar. for now its pretty style bar that very well could be a road hazard to whoever may be driving behind you
There is a real reason not to wear gloves while using this machinery: they can get caught in something rotating and drag body parts into the machinery. I'm sure you know this, but others might not.
How would it affect the result if you heated the parts that you're going to bend before doing it?
If you heated it and let it cool slowly, you've annealed it (softened it) - even Mild Steel can be slightly annealed. As you cold bend it, you're also work-hardening it, which would make it harder. In theory you could heat-bend it, then quench the bend in water or oil - Mild steel won't fracture by doing that, so it's low risk and would put some of the hardness back in.
Hi, in that kind of suspension, do not need the bar that is fixed with the axis for it to do its job?