M3 style sway bar mounts, how does this look?

[Jaxx_]

can someone please explain to me how a torsion bar is most effective at a horizontal position? Maybe I've been missing something here for a long fucking time.

edit: for clarity, horizontal to the ground. this makes no physical sense to me.

[george graves]

If the bar is horizontal(perpendicular actually) to the movement of the strut, and the strut moves down an inch, you get X degrees of "twist" on the the bar. Now, when the bar is at 45 degrees to the movement of the strut, and the strut moves down an inch, you'll get less then X degrees of "twist" - more "twist" means the bar is imparting more force. More force is better.

Problem is that when you lower your car, the bar is no longer horizontal. So by using adjustable links (or if your welding in the m3 mounts) - you can get the bar horizontal.

That's kinda a crappy explanation. Maybe someone can do better.

[einstein57]

A teflon-lined rod-end will muffle the noise as compared to a metal-to-metal rod-end.

You must have an s50 swap cause i can't hear jack over my ticking valves and getrag rattle.

can someone please explain to me how a torsion bar is most effective at a horizontal position? Maybe I've been missing something here for a long fucking time.

edit: for clarity, horizontal to the ground. this makes no physical sense to me.

Basically physics breaks down to Sin and Cos functions. The net vertical force that gets applied to the bar is the total force times the sine of the angle of the tie rod and the sway bar. Sin of 90* is 1 so you get 100%. 45* is .707 so you'd get about 71% of the force applied to the bars twist action and the remaining 29% gets applied toward breaking stuff. lol.

[Jaxx_]

If the bar is horizontal(perpendicular actually) to the movement of the strut

yeah, okay. to the strut, not to the ground. that's what I understood.

[e30leigh]

yes. it needs to be perpendicular to the strut movement. even worse then the loss is force transferred is the fact that it accually puts the other forces into pushing the bar the wrong way. it can bend the bar, break links, eat out bushes, break your welds, bend the shock casing. or tear it.

i had on one occasion, on a nissan be it, but the principal is the same. where the sway bar turned itself upside down because the links where pushing at the wrong angle on the sway bar.

[george graves]

i had on one occasion, where the sway bar turned itself upside down because we are upside down

[lbreevesii]

I had always thought it was to the ground. I think i understand, but i'm not quite sure I follow what 'part' of the strut you are using for reference.

If i'm following right, then the whole idea is to have the sway effectively at a 90*(as you've said, perpendicular) angle to the strut housing at right height- ergo from that static point, all up/down movement and its resultant twist is bringing the bar further away from the ideal location.

[Jaxx_]

I had always thought it was to the ground. I think i understand, but i'm not quite sure I follow what 'part' of the strut you are using for reference.

If i'm following right, then the whole idea is to have the sway effectively at a 90*(as you've said, perpendicular) angle to the strut housing at right height- ergo from that static point, all up/down movement and its resultant twist is bringing the bar further away from the ideal location.

it's 90 degrees from the strut action. in this case, with all the e30 caster, it should be what, 10 degrees difference from the ground?

[lbreevesii]

sounds about right. thanks for confirmation. Got my akg endlink tabs in the mail today.

[e30leigh]

excuse my ignorance. but is there much to be had from doing this? are the loads transferd better? stronger? more twist so better stability? is the action of the load transfer faster?
there must be a obvious reason im not seeing otherwise im sure it wouldnt be done. or is the the fact that the sway bar is acting more directly with the shocks its giving a faster more precise, stronger action of force transfer over the lose of energy through balljoints, bushes, and just the inertia of the engery to travel that far?

i just realised i may have answered my own question. but am i on the right track here? if so this is a very interesting mod that i may have to keep in mind for when i get the time to do it.

[ChefSkinny]

Think you hit it on the head with the shocks part of your post

[drumad]

why? WHY!?!?!?

BECAUSE M3!

but seriously, I think you nailed it already