Custom Wider Rear Sway Bar?

[cnunes]

I have the Suspension Techniques rear-mounted sway bar that wraps around the back of the differential between the mustache bar and the lower control arm crossmember. Per recommendations here, the sway bar has been spaced back about 3/4" using a stack of aluminum flat stock to prevent bind by keeping the end-links vertical at normal ride height (AZC springs). Also, to maximize axle clearance in anticipation of a CV swap someday, I'd used shorter grade 8 bolts for the end-links and foregone the tubular spacer so the cup-washers sandwiching the poly were just stacked back to back.

 

This allowed me to route the sway bar underneath the parking brake cables but the secondary bend in the sway bar (before it goes horizontal) had barely an 1/8" of clearance to the control arm on the driver's side, making it rub during bump travel (left a nice shiny spot on both the LCA and the sway bar). For some reason, the clearance on the passenger side was over 3/8" and didn't appear to rub (no shiny spot), but that could just be machining differences within my stack of aluminum flat stock?

 

Adding the tubular spacer and routing the sway bar over the parking brake cable seems to have cured my LCA clearance issues, but the bar is still squishing down the parking brake cable where the bar swoops down and the cable swoops up. The sway bar and the cable just seem to want to occupy the same space. One idea is to run a longer e-brake cable, which would give it enough slack to droop under the sway bar, but replacing e-brake cables is a pain, and then I noticed the e-brake cable runs much lower toward the outboard side of the LCA.

 

That gave me an idea: Wouldn't a wider sway bar with a sharper bend clear the e-brake cable? The extreme of this idea would be a 10" wider bar such that each side curves in 5" farther outboard which would necessitate a 90 degree bend to tuck under the half-shaft between the boot and the U- joint where there is the maximum amount of clearance. This would clear both the e-brake cable and halfshafts with ease!

 

I can't imagine it would cost much at a machine shop to put two almost-90 degree bends in a tube, press the ends flat and drill holes through them? Or am I missing something? Is there a reason why I don't see a lot of custom sway bars other than the expensive splined deals with separate arms?

 

So what are the pitfalls to this idea? First, this shouldn't limit wheel/tire selection because all this is inboard of the shock/springs. Second, my guess is that a sharper bend will result in more leverage applied to the bar as it pivots which would act like a stiffer bar given the same material thickness and tube diameter. If that's the case, the problem could easily be remedied by simply using a smaller diameter tube stock to maintain proper balance, but is this how the geometry works or is the leverage the same as long as the pivot locations and end-links remain unchanged??

 

Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are some pics of my clearance issues (taken before I added the tubular spacers into the end-links):

 

Here you can see the shiny spot on the control arm where the sway bar was rubbing...

 

 

Perhaps a better angle of the clearance (or lack thereof).

 

 

And this is the passenger side which has plenty of clearance but is still touching the parking brake cable.

 

 

There appears to be plenty of room for such a design; I don't see why the curve has to start so close to the pivot bracket...Thoughts?

Edited May 23, 2012 by cnunes
2.8 megs is way to large. Please resize before posting.

[S30 SPL]

No images because your pictures were too big.

[cnunes]

Fixed! Sorry about that...

[S30 SPL]

I think that it is interfering with things because you altered the location it was intended to originally to be installed. Everything put together made it not fit like they designed. I think you should try a longer endlink to see if it resolves your issue and/or relocate your cable above the sway bar.