How Critical is it to have the front sway bar parallel to the ground

[iwantspeed]

Hello guys
Do I lose some effectiveness from the sway bar if It's not parrallel to the ground?

Current setup
2460 lbs with half a tank of gas no driver
Bilstein sports
GE coilovers 450 front 650 rear
Turner billet rear shock mount
Stock front upper strut mount.
(planning vorschlag camber plate)
Sparco strut bar
Rongineer rear shock tower bar
Race skids Cross brace
Stock rear sway bar
And my latest purchase was a

• 21mm convertible sway bar
• Adjustable endings
• Poly bushings
• Reinforced mounts

I installed the sway bar and that went fine
But the adjustable end links in there shortest size were still to long to have the sway bar parrallel to the ground
I cut the end links by 0.375 inch and reinstalled them.
There was some improvement but still not perfect

I was planning on adding a second set of holes on the bracket that attaches to the control arm and cutting the excess off so I won't interfere with the movement of the heim joint.
I think this is my best option right now
I'd like the end link to still have some room for adjustment and not at it's smallest size
Down the road id like to corner balance the car and set up the end links and sway bar to have no preload even if the adjustment on the coilovers from left to right is different.

Or should I just leave it as is?


Shortened end links
Stock on the right

Sway bar mounted
With the stock long links

Sway bar mounted
With shortened end links

[Jaxx_]

You mean perpendicular to the strut? you could do the calculation with trig, and get the effective percentage from 100%.

Honestly I would leave it as is. I would also worry about the possibly of the suspension binding as you get closer and closer.

[kronus]

Ideally you'd go to M3-style endlinks that mount to the strut instead of the control arm. That gives you more room for endlinks and increases the effective anti-roll rate.

[Balleristic31]

Honestly I would ditch the stock links and go with the m3 style strut mounted ones. The difference in front bar effectiveness I felt by doing this was significant.

[jlevie]

The effective stiffness of the sway changes somewhat if it isn't parallel to the ground. If car is lower than stock you just about can't get the bar parallel to ground, but what you have doesn't have excessive error and will be okay.

[Nsquared97]

Why does it have to be any certain angle with the ground? The important thing is to have it perpindicular to whatever it's mounting to, so that it's applying all it's force in one direction? Correct me if I'm wrong.

[yeaseth]

Mine isn't parallel and it works perfect so I wouldn't worry about it too much, If the car drives how you like it the sway is just fine at that angle. Have fun!

[Jaxx_]

Why does it have to be any certain angle with the ground? The important thing is to have it perpindicular to whatever it's mounting to, so that it's applying all it's force in one direction? Correct me if I'm wrong.

yes, the strut. who cares about the ground?

[Hellabad]

In the perfect world which does not exist, the sway bar should be perpendicular to the movement of the suspension , which has nothing to do with the ground. Really, it does not make much difference anyways, even at a large angle, and in most situations the freedom of movement is the most important thing.

Attaching to the strut is an excellent choice when allowed by the rules.

http://www.ground-control.com/images/bmw/e30/comp/index.html