[DeTomaso] looking for 7/8" rear bar

[Tomas Gunnarsson]

I must be lucky. I ordered a hollow 1 x 0.095" bar in 1999 from a drag race
chassis mfg outfit here in Sweden. The only clue to what material it is is
the Cr.Mo. ref. on the receipt. I tacked washers on it like Jack describes
with my MIG welder. So far it's held up. I'd probably have gone for a clamp
on limiter if I'd had access to a lathe at the time but I didn't. The wall
thickness was chosen to make the stiffness similar to a 22 mm (or 7/8")
solid bar and it's within a few percent of the same stiffness (by
calculation).

Regarding what setup was the base for the assumption that a 22 mm / 7/8"
swaybar was "better" I can only assume that it was with stock spring rates
(early or GTS) and GTS (8+10) size wheels. If everything else is left
unchanged a stiffer rear bar will make the car gain cornering grip up front
at the expense of rear grip.

Tomas

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com
[mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com]On Behalf Of JDeRyke at aol.com
Sent: den 30 september 2010 22:23
To: kenn_green at yahoo.com; detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] looking for 7/8" rear bar


In a message dated 9/30/10 12:52:20 PM, kenn_green at yahoo.com writes:

> Since the 7/8 rear bar seems universally accepted as a good thing for
> most Panteras, maybe a group buy would be in order?  I think they would be
> pretty cheap to make if enough people want them.  Does anyone have a spec
for
> the steel used?
>
Almost any high-carbon bar stock will work; most are not heat treated but
simply cold-bent. Heat treat is tricky; I once tried to straighten a stock
solid swaybar for another car that ALMOST fit, by using a torch to ease the
bending. During final fit-up, I broke the 7/8" thick bar in two with my
hands!
Carroll Smith says they often used cheap mild steel tubing on his open
wheel racers when trying to tune the suspensions.
Simply copying the stock design also works as long as its a solid bar.
Reason is, tack-welding the travel-limiting washers on a solid high-carbon
bar
seems to be OK, but done to a lightweight hollow swaybar, the bar ALWAYS
cracks at the weld(s), so most vendors no longer offer hollow swaybars.
For the hollow bars I make, I use clamp-on limiters and rather expensive
thickwall 4130-steel tubing (still un-heat-treated). The pertinate article
(Swaybar Tech) was in the Jan '08 POCA News. My 2¢- J DeRyke
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