[DeTomaso] Sway Bar Mounts

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

> In a message dated 5/8/10 10 41 49, tborcich at msn.com writes:
> 
> I recall a number of months back someone commented that I should add 
> additional support to the sway bar mounts on the a-arms because theirs pulled 
> right off the arm from loading?
> 
The first time I saw a broken a-arm bar mount was on Nor-Cal Tony Harvey's 
Pantera. The weld fatigue-failed at one end of the swaybar mount strap, and 
Tony told me the car had polyurethane bushings on the ends and center 
pivots. Then I talked to a couple of vendors and found this sometimes happens on 
cars driven "vigorously" on bumpy roads. So until Hall developed 
sphere-balls, I ran compliant rubber bushings on the ends and hard poly in the center. 
Too much compliance subtracts from the bar action, reducing its 
effectiveness. But that was better than fatigue failure. 

There are two ways one can mount a big swaybar, and the difference is in 
how cornering force is applied to the a-arm. One is directly- with a bushing 
or a sphere-ball. The other is with a rod end that connects to the a-arm via 
a bracket- usually having a second rod end with a connecting tube between 
bar and a-arm that can add or remove pre-load. The only problem I've ever seen 
with the GR-4/Woodhouse rod-end swaybar mounts is, the linkage hangs below 
the a-arm, cutting down on road clearance. Racetracks are manicured smooth- 
especially Euro tracks, but real life U.S. public streets are far from 
smooth or debris-free. Just looked chancy to me for a street car- J DeRyke