Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Suspension For those with the Aussie Bar!!!

I feel victimized! I bought a "bolt-on" that rips your car apart! Quality just quality?!

You weren't victimized, as a matter of fact Aussie and Terry both stated that the upgraded brackets should be used right from the start. The use of the stock brackets was made optional for those that felt they could trust them, but the warning was made and the consequences were stated clearly. I chose to wait and now I paid the price, that doesn't mean it will happen to everyone.

About it being a bolt-on, getting a muffler shop to weld on the bracket(or weld it yourself) is probably easier and less time consuming than trying to get the old bar out and putting the new bar in.

ExDelayed, I'm all for seeing more photos. I had decided to use the Aussie backing plate fix but maybe angle stock is another good way to go.

Thanks for the info.

-Kurt

He said it was "recommended" not required. And I don't remember reading anything about it ripping your subframe off. There should have been a disclaimer

**Upgraded Backing plates (as well as brackets) are required for this sway bar or it will rip your futhermuckin subframe off and cost you lots of money to fix.

I'm not knockin or flamin anyone on this.........

What I'm wondering is, why no one with a SCA bar (manufactured by ProgressTech) has ever had a problem with there subrframe being ripped apart? Lots of people have had the SCA bar for years as it has been around quite a long time.

I talked to Terry about this and the reason that he believes the brackets are stressed so much is because the stock brackets are too small to accept the 24mm bushings. Basically, the stock brackets clamp down too much on the bushings which in turn clamps down on the bar too much and does not allow for natural movement of the bar. You have to remember that those brackets are just support brackets and are there to help keep the bar in place, nothing else.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the strength of the stock plates it is just that the new bushings are simply too large for the brackets, hence why you should upgrade the backing plate to accept the bigger bracket.

For example, IIRC there are some Mercedes' running out there with sway bars bigger or equal to the 24mm bar available to us and their support brackets are made out of a thinner piece of metal but have no breakage problems. This hints that the problem in our car is simply a fitment issue between the large bushing and small bracket, if the said bracket were sized to fit the 24mm bushing no one would be experiencing this problem.

SpectraSVT:
To my knowledge, there are only a few cases of sway bars disconnecting from the subframe while plenty of people are running sans problems. So I think that Terry and Aussie did all they needed to do by recommending that the upgraded brackets be used, if you chose or will choose to ignore that recommendation then go ahead...but don't act all bewildered when they did make a point of telling everyone that upgraded brackets were recommended for proper fitment.

"Another one bites the dust."

so... how does one get ahold of these upgraded brackets?

Cheers,
Tom

I went against the advice given and put the bar on with the stock backing plates. I got the new ones, but by that time the stock stuff was too torn up to do any good. The new brackets I built actually used the backing plates that I bought from Aussie.

I still have some light left. I will go take my tire off and get some pics.

Aussie makes some, $13 IIRC. I would reccomend installing them when you put your sway bar onto the car.