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Thread: Anti sway bars?

  1. #1
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    Anti sway bars?

    I was wondering what an anti-sway bar does, where it goes, how it works, etc.....a few pics would help tremendously, since i'm a very visual learner

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    All I know is its purrpose is to reduce body roll, and i think they cn go up front above the engine and in back, not sure though
    < 1 - 2 - to the bass >

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by kko
    All I know is its purrpose is to reduce body roll, and i think they cn go up front above the engine and in back, not sure though
    I thought it was strut braces that go over the engine

  4. #4
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    yeah sway bars go under the car strut bars are located on top of the engine and usually in the trunk also. they both make the cars chasis more rigid and decrease body roll.

  5. #5
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    sweet, then i'll get one of those babes someday

  6. #6
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    Ur right sweeny
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  7. #7
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    I love how everyone misspells my last name

    it's sweenEy!

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by NAZCA C2
    yeah sway bars go under the car strut bars are located on top of the engine and usually in the trunk also. they both make the cars chasis more rigid and decrease body roll.
    where do the anti-sway bar attach to the chassis? they look like they're shaped to attach next to the engine, but deeper under the hood......

  9. #9
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    AS STATED FROM:

    http://www.chris-longhurst.com/carbi...ion_bible.html

    Anti-roll Bars & Strut Braces

    - Strut Braces

    If you're serious about your car's handling performance, you will first be looking at lowering the suspension. In most cases, unless you're a complete petrolhead, this will be more than adequate. However, if you are a keen driver, you will be able to get far better handling out of your car by fitting a couple of other accessories to it. The first thing you should look at is a strut brace. When you corner, the whole car's chassis is twisting slightly. In the front (and perhaps at the back, but not so often) the suspension pillars will be moving relative to each other because there's no physical link between them. A strut brace bolts across the top of the engine to the tops of the two suspension posts and makes that physical contact. The result is that the whole front suspension setup becomes a lot more rigid and there will be virtually no movement relative to each side. In effect, you're adding the fourth side to the open box created by the subframe and the two suspension pillars.




    - Anti-roll Bars (Sway Bars/Stabilizers)

    No, these aren't the things that are bolted inside the car in case you turn it over - those are rollover cages. Anti-roll bars do precisely what their name implies - they combat the roll of a car on it's suspension as it corners. They're also known as sway-bars or anti-sway-bars. Almost all cars have them fitted as standard, and if you're a boy-racer, all have scope for improvement. From the factory they are biased towards ride comfort. Stiffer aftermarket items will increase the roadholding but you'll get reduced comfort because of it. It's a catch-22 situation. Fiddling with your roll stiffness distribution can make a car uncomfortable to ride in and extremely hard to handle if you get it wrong. The anti-roll bar is usually connected to the front, lower edge of the bottom suspension joint. It passes through two pivot points under the chassis, usually on the subframe and is attached to the same point on the opposite suspension setup. Effectively, it joins the bottom of the suspension parts together. When you head into a corner, the car begins to roll out of the corner. For example, if you're cornering to the left, the car body rolls to the right. In doing this, it's compressing the suspension on the right hand side. With a good anti-roll bar, as the lower part of the suspension moves upward relative to the car chassis, it transfers some of that movement to the same component on the other side. In effect, it tries to lift the left suspension component by the same amount. Because this isn't physically possible, the left suspension effectively becomes a fixed point and the anti-roll bar twists along its length because the other end is effectively anchored in place. It's this twisting that provides the resistance to the suspension movement.



    If you're loaded, you can buy cars with active anti-roll technology now. These sense the roll of the car into a corner and deflate the relevant suspension leg accordingly by pumping fluid in and out of the shock absorber. It's a high-tech, super expensive version of the good old mechanical anti-roll bar. You can buy anti-roll bars as an aftermarket addon. They're relatively easy to fit because most cars have anti-roll bars already. Take the old one off and fit the new one. In the case of rear suspension, the fittings will probably already be there even if the anti-roll bar isn't.

  10. #10
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    just to add to this with a bit of simple physics

    many people who know squat about the basic nessecities of suspension layout/geometry/design think that a carbon fibre strut brace or something made out of space age composite materials which costs hundreds of dollars must be better then the oem parts or simpler less expensive parts which costs way less

    a quick fact

    the rigidity/strength of a tubular structure is dependent on it's length, diameter and material

    since my whole point is to prove you dont need space age materials like titanium or carbon fibre im removing the rigidity factor out of the equation since it will be a constant for the original and new part, same goes for length because presumably you're not changing the mounting points

    so the last thing which im left with is diameter

    the d^4 is a factor of the rigidity function which means if i double the diameter i will quadruple the rigidity as long as the other variables remain the same

    now imagine my stock strut or anti sway bar is 1cm thick (diameter), d^4 will be 1
    if i double the stock struts diameter it will be 2cm thick and d^2 will be 16

    but doubling the diameter will increase weight by 4 times but gives a stifness to weight ratio 4 times better then the original, this can be enhanced even more with another simple modification

    easy, drill a hole inside the thicker bar making it hollow, if i were to bore a 1mm diameter hole in my new 2mm bar it will now weigh in just 3 times as much as original but will be 15 times more rigid then stock, this gives a stiffness/weight ratio of 5:1

    using a simple derivative of the function you can find the maximum s/w ratio you can get givin a specific outer diameter but ill do this tommorow since im tired

    as you can see you dont need a whole lotta money or crazy funky space shuttle material to increase the performance/limits of ur car significantly

  11. #11
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    alright, my volvo has a stock anti-sway bar, so i won't be messing with that. looks like a better suspension and strut brace are to get

  12. #12
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    Both extremely helpful and solid posts
    +1 to both of you!
    The Datto will rage again...

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sweeney921
    alright, my volvo has a stock anti-sway bar, so i won't be messing with that. looks like a better suspension and strut brace are to get
    What Volvo ?

    As said already, anti-roll bars help balance the suspension movement during cornering. So a stiffer bar will help maintain inner wheel contact and hence grip.

    Stiffening the anti-roll bar is one of the simplest and easiest improvements you can make for a heavier car. The downside is worse bump handling - and can lead to bump steer - and more effort to turn the wheel.

    YOu dont' say where you drive and what you ant to do either.
    In some cases REMOVING the anti-roll bar can be an advantage.
    Tell us more and you can likely get more focussed advice.

    Where's Egg-Nog's drawings when you need them
    "A woman without curves is like a road without bends, you might get to your destination quicker but the ride is boring as hell'

  14. #14
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    anti sway bar's stiffness is proportional to it's diameter to the 4th power, length, and material's rigidity factor

    d^4 * length * RF

    a 1 inch bar will be 1*length*RF strong
    a 2 inch bar will be 16*length*RF strong
    a 2 inch bar with 1 inch hole bored through it will be 15*length*RF strong

    a 1 inch bar will weigh pi*0.25*length*density in weight
    a 2 inch bar will weigh pi*1*length*density in weight
    a 2 inch bar with 1 inch hole bored through it will weigh .75(pi*length*density) in weight


  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Matra et Alpine
    What Volvo ?
    1996 Volvo 850 GLT, I did the egg nog challenge a while ago.

    thanks for all the help!

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