FC front sway bar spacers

[pitesy]

Hi guys,

I am in the middle preparing the chassis for my BMW M52 swap. After I finish the rear end and have a fixed pinion angle, I'd like to go ahead and start putting the engine in.

I just had a look today in the engine bay and it seem like the highest oil pan contact point is the sway bar itself.

I was searching around on the forum and found people writing about fabbing up some spacers, but either there was no picture, or the picture was not available anymore.

Do you have a few pics for me for inspiration? Found someone mentioning a rectangular bar with holes drilled to space it down. Also saw cnc'd stuff spacing it down and forward. Ideally spacing it down might be okay for me, but I don't know which is better to avoid binding. If needed, I'll just get some adjustable ones with heim joints.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Best regards
Stefan

[Supe]

Many will use ones that look like this:



I had to fabricate ones that look more like this:



You will run into a limit as far as how far you can move them without binding or clearance issues.  In my case, I cut and welded my sway bar with extended arms, but will be switching to a NASCAR style sway bar (tube type with splined arms) in the future. 

[pitesy]

Thank you very much! Do you maybe recall how big your spacer was?

I was under the car today and it seemed to me if I just space it down I at least need a drop of 2".

If I wanted to move it forward and down, the drop could be smaller.

[Supe]

Looks like 3" or so.  I had to clear a large 8" balancer, pulley, and trigger wheel at the time.   

[pitesy]

That is indeed not very small. Also a big task the clear all of those.

Thank you very much for your feedback, really appreciate it!

[cholmes]

Be sure, once you have the swaybar spaced down / forward, to remove the strut spring and move the wheel thru the entire range of travel. Leave the other end of the bar disconnected for this test. Make sure you don't get weird angles between the end link and the control arm that cause binding. The FC has short endlinks that make this worse.

With big spacers, you may well find that the swaybar's arm might be very nearly straight up and down when the strut is fully compressed. That can give strange handling and puts huge stress on the endlinks.

[pitesy]

Thank you! I did not think of doing that, but it does make a lot of sense.

I will do that test before I finalize the spacer setup.

[Supe]

Be sure, once you have the swaybar spaced down / forward, to remove the strut spring and move the wheel thru the entire range of travel. Leave the other end of the bar disconnected for this test. Make sure you don't get weird angles between the end link and the control arm that cause binding. The FC has short endlinks that make this worse.

With big spacers, you may well find that the swaybar's arm might be very nearly straight up and down when the strut is fully compressed. That can give strange handling and puts huge stress on the endlinks.

Yep.  This is why I ended up cutting my sway bar and welding new arms to the end. 

[largeorangefont]

Thank you! I did not think of doing that, but it does make a lot of sense.

I will do that test before I finalize the spacer setup.

Use Mazdatrix endlinks or make some endlinks with heims on both ends. If you use rubber, OEM or urethane endlinks like Racing Beat, they will bind.

[Christopher W.]

I moved question to my build thread..