disconnected sway bar?

[99GSXAWDTURBO]

im doing suspension work on my 2G GSX, and broke the "link" piece the stock sway bar attaches to on the control arm. Will leaving it disconnected cause any real problems? More or less im asking if it will be OK to drive the car with the sway bar disconnected, i called mitsu, the idiots there didnt even know what i was talking about. Thanks!

 

[jtmcinder]

If I can autocross with one or both disconnected (for testing), then you can drive on the street that way.

- Jtoby

 

[drag97GSX]

That said Jtoby, can straight-line car do completely without BOTH sway bars? I will do some light to moderate street driving and nothing too terribly spirited through turns. Thanks.

 

[jtmcinder]

Until about 48 hours ago, I wouldn't have replied, given that I had never tried drag racing. Now I can say that, as long as you don't get in trouble, I can't see why you couldn't delete the swaybars. But if, for example, some idiot in a gold Honda decides to cut across in front of you to get to the exit lane, you might like having the ability to swerve with confidence at 100+ mph.

- J "I suppose all those 1.9 and 2.0 short-times are my fault" toby

 

[drag97GSX]

! Guess what i am really getting at is will the weight savings of sway bar deletion more than offset the occasional need to panic/chase turn in a primarily straight-line car that does some weekend cruising? Thanks again.

 

[1LE]

I've broken swaybar mounts before (multiple times). The car goes from being fun, to being annoying to drive... I can't stand how the car drives without them!

 

[almostquick]

I just removed my front swaybar, I'll be beating on the car tomarrow and tell you how it handles/launches. A local shop car has poly bushings and neither sway bars and has pulled a best of a 1.5 sixty foot w/ all seasons.

 

[1LE]

Poly bushings are probably real good for drag racing. I'm not too fond of them for autox/road course/rally. They seem to like to bind up and not move smoothly. I've *heard* that the way to go there is nylon bushings, but I've never run across any...

 

[jtmcinder]

Nylon is much harder than urethane. If urethane bushings bind, then nylon will bind an order of magnitude more.

Or are you using the word 'bind' incorrectly? It's a technical term and refers to situations where the pivots involved do not allow for certain movement for purely geometrical reasons. Maybe you just mean 'stick.'

- Jtoby

 

[1LE]

Nylon is much harder than urethane. If urethane bushings bind, then nylon will bind an order of magnitude more.

Or are you using the word 'bind' incorrectly? It's a technical term and refers to situations where the pivots involved do not allow for certain movement for purely geometrical reasons. Maybe you just mean 'stick.'

- Jtoby

Yes, "stick" is the word I'm looking for

 

[jtmcinder]

Cool. Although I've found that properly-lubed urethane has effectively zero resistance to rotation. The main reason for jumping from urethane to either nylon or delrin is to reduce compliance even more.

To explain: when you switch from OE rubber to urethane bushings on your swaybars, it's like you just made the bars a mm or two thicker. When you switch from urethane to nylon, you just made them another mm thicker. Any compliance (i.e., squish) in the bushings makes the bar less effective. Therefore, reducing compliance makes the (same) bar work better.

- Jtoby

ps. you do not want to just squirt something worthless like WD40 on the bushings; you want a real grease and you want to take the bracket off and get the grease in the grooves on the bushings

 

[1LE]

ps. you do not want to just squirt something worthless like WD40 on the bushings; you want a real grease and you want to take the bracket off and get the grease in the grooves on the bushings

The problem that I have is that the car is driven in some fairly harsh conditions, and the grease seems to get washed out pretty quick. I'm talking needing to re-grease every 6 months to 1 year depending on how much of the time my car is broken on jackstands

 

[1gcrazy]

Until about 48 hours ago, I wouldn't have replied, given that I had never tried drag racing. Now I can say that, as long as you don't get in trouble, I can't see why you couldn't delete the swaybars. But if, for example, some idiot in a gold Honda decides to cut across in front of you to get to the exit lane, you might like having the ability to swerve with confidence at 100+ mph.

- J "I suppose all those 1.9 and 2.0 short-times are my fault" toby

Good thing the only place you'll see a honda on a drag strip is in your rearview!

 

[almostquick]

I dont mind the car without them at all. I think I'll be taking out the rear sway also along with AGX's, springs, and prothane bushings.

 

[DSMpwr25]

If you cut both of your connector peices that hold the sway bar to the lower control arm on the front of a 2g awd. Were would you go along buying 2 more?