M3 style sway bar mounts, how does this look?

[ChefSkinny]

Anyone see anything that looks really wrong with this?
Besides the painters tape lol. Going to weld it soon so just wanted a second opinion.

[acolella76]

Why weld, that looks perfect! I'd leave the tape

[drumad]

shouldnt the sway bar be horizontal with your suspension loaded?

[ChefSkinny]

Drumad that's what I heard that you want it as close as possible to horizontal. Right now there is no load at all on it so it's going to become closer to horizontal i think once the car is on the ground?

Ps everyone knows you have to use duct tape to hold suspension together

[lbreevesii]

^ correct, however you might want to put it on the ground to take some measurements so you know exactly how its going to sit. It wouldn't matter quite as much if you were using aftermarket adjustable endlinks.

[einstein57]

So here. I think this will explain it better. This is an animated Gif (may take a second to load) - One picture is at a height of tucking tire. The second is full drop. The issue I'm seeing is the clearance below the link. It's the control arm to link clearance. If you weld the mount too low, any lower then the stock m3 link, as the suspension drops, it will bind up - or am I not seeing things right?

Of course the reason I wanted to weld it lower is to get the sway bar horizontal, so that it's most effective. I got that idea from Luke. I really need to stop listening to that guy. ;)

[ChefSkinny]

I've always found adjustable links rough and noisy. Guess I'll go higher to be safe?

[george graves]

Yea, you can't weld it too low or it will bind.

[einstein57]

I've been using adjustable links for over a year. No increase in noise from my experience (unless you don't torque them down all the way). Guess it depends on the quality of the end pieces.

[ChefSkinny]

Ya i guess so, the ones I had also were toast after a year, were all seized. If I weld them and it doesn't work out with my positioning I'll pick up a set of adjustables.

[110stx]

Aurora rod ends FTW!

[SkiFree]

. Guess it depends on the quality of the end pieces.

Aurora rod ends FTW!

To clarify here. More important than quality is going to be the type of rod end in the first place. A teflon-lined rod-end will muffle the noise as compared to a metal-to-metal rod-end. The downside is that a teflon/rubber lined rod-end will not behave as precisely as a metal-metal piece (the whole give and take thing).

You can have the highest quality metal-to-metal Aurora rod-end and you'll still get more noise than the cheapest teflon-lined rod-end.

The best for you is going to be to figure out exactly what you want out of the endlink (what your using it for; street/track) and make an educated decision, not one that simply goes off of a sweeping generalization.

[george graves]

Isn't the main issue is that road grime will get in the joints? I'd expect that you could develope a lot of slop in the joint over time if you got some nasty abrasive stuff in there(?).

[ChefSkinny]

This is a car that will be DD'd, road tripped etc. (although I barely need a car) and taken to track days / auto-x in the summer. The stock links are exactly what I want. I'm running the vert 21mm bar, and with the m3 style sway mounting being much more effective should be plenty stiff for spirited driving but still be able to drive relaxed.

[SkiFree]

Isn't the main issue is that road grime will get in the joints?

If the intended use is for a street car, then yes it is an issue (but the other side of the coin is that it won't operate as smoothly). For a track car, not so much. Seems like Chef knew exactly what he needed prior to posting.

It's a sliding scale based on price, longevity, and performance....

all the way up to a ball and socket oem type end at one end and a high precision metal to metal end on the other.