[William Miller]

New 22mm sways showed up Friday.
This weekends project was to strengthen the mounts:

Before: Mine were in great condition, no tears, or nuts breaking thru.


I added pieces of 1/16" steel plate on the bottom face and the outside:


I saw a simular diagional brace on Pelican BBS and thought it was a great Idea. This is actually a piece of steel chanel It's about 2-1/2" wide and has little wings on the ends that stiffen it. Most of it is about 1/8" thick.


I'm now waiting for the paint to dry so I can hang the new sway bar!

[APKhaos]

Outstanding work, Bill. That looks a lot like the way mine were in the final phase ie. after teh stock, reinforced stock, and after-market specials had failed. With that triangulation, you are set to mount up the killer 30mm Smart Racing sway bar to go with your 31mm torsion bars and revalved shocks. Its a nice setup if that's what you have in mind.

Be sure to get some rust proofing up there before the shipworm starts munching.

[jpnovak]

Nice work!

[William Miller]

Thanks,
Paint's dry. Going to get some undercoating tomarrow.
I just ran out to test fit the bar.
One side fine.
The other side I snapped off the end of the encentric bolt.


After I read the directions..... 45 ft lbs. I swear I didn't put that much on it.
The stock encentric nuts must have taken 150 ft. lbs to break loose.

Now I'm stuck!
I wonder how hard it is to find this odd ball part.
Wonder if I can drill thru the encentric part and install a hardened bolt thru the whole thing.
Think it will work?

[jpnovak]

Which eccentric? toe or camber? I might have one left over from my build.

If its a ride height eccentric, can't help.

[William Miller]

Sorry, should have been more specific.

On the instruction sheet it's item F. With their sway bar, you replace the stock Toe eccentric bolt with the one supplied in the kit. The drop link attaches to the center of the inside of this.



This is the good side:
The instructions state that for a starting point slide the clamp on the drop link so that the drop link will be verticle. Because of the bend in the bar, I can't get it any further foreward. The drop link is not verticle. The diagram nor the instructions tell you which way is up on the bar. I'm thinking maybe I have it upside down.

[William Miller]

The pictures below have disappeared.
I think they were in the gallery which is no longer arround.
I also no longer have the pictures so here are a few.
The 1st is the idea I benchmarked from.
The second is the outer side after all completed.

From what I read in the past, one problem was that the nuts behind the mount sometimes pull thru so I put a layer to thicken the mount where the bolts go in. I also added a plate on the outside and did a triangulation like in the second picture to keep it from twisting.

[William Miller]

Here is a picture of the break.
Any metal experts out there?
This doesn't look like good steel to me.
The mating surfaces are rough where it broke.
It doesn't show signs of streatching or twisting which I expected.
Sort of look like a break in something that was cast. (like pot metal or cast iron pipe fitting that cracked off.)

[Noah]

Bill,
Looks like cheap steel to me. Weltmeister does not have a reputation for quality, even though their stuff does look pretty in the box.

For a good guide to fastener breakage, there was a long thread on Pelican recently started by "Craig911" about an ERP bump steer bolt that had sheared on his track car (the bolt was improperly installed). There was lots of good discussion/pictures/etc about bolt breakage.

I have the 22/21mm factory '86 Carrera sways on my car (with reinforced rear mounts). I'm going to get the Tarret adjustable rear drop links so I can set them up with no preload, and sometime in the future when I'm rich I'll get the Smart Racing sway bars, which are the simply the best there is (and expensive too).

I'd get on the horn with Weltmeister and request a new eccentric bolt.

[William Miller]

I read that thread.
I never thought those kits looked all that safe. It seems like there should be a better way to do it.

I've called both Tweeks (mamotorworks) and Weltmeister (Performance Products.) Their looking into what replacement parts are avalible. The drop links came in a prepackaged blister pack. Other parts were in their own packaging. I wonder if thay have anything seperate?

I'll post an update when I find something out. We'll see how their customer service hats are working these days.