Well after working with the Steering and Supsension Group of my company (AAM) I got them to CNC bend me up a couple of 24mm HOLLOW sway bars. Their geometry is basically identical to the stock version , with the exception of the diameter ofcourse.
Anyhow on Saturday morning I installed it in my driveway.
The trickiest bit to the hole install is getting the stock bar out of the car and the new one in due to the gap between the front of the rear subframe and the back of the gas tank. The gap is probably about 15mm, so even getting the stock SVT bar out is hard!
The trick to do it is to support the gas tank with a jack and loosen off the tank straps to allow you slide the gas tank forward to increase the gap.
Once that's done it all easy sailing from there.
The bar fits beautifully in its place. No interference whatsoever, there is plenty of clearance in the vehicle. I reused the stock brackets but used 15/16" poly bushing in place of the junky stock rubber bushings. I also removed the stock tie rods and cut the crappy rubber bushings off the trailing arms and replaced them with Ø1-1/8" X 5/8" polyurethane endlink bushings.
With it all bolted back together, the fit and finish is great. There are ABSOLUTELY NO CLUNKING OR CREAKING noises from the rear end.
And the most important thing....the handling is
INSANE!!!!
Almost all the body roll is gone and understeer has become a thing of the past. The car is very neutral now (feels weird for a FWD!), and throwing her into corners rewards you with a tight line and minimal tire protest. This has to be the
BEST
handling mod, hands down. It really compliments the H&R springs I have on the car. My car handles now, how it should have from the factory by SVT! The only disappointment was that the adjustability I was trying to incorporate is not possible due to the design of the tie rod ends, which basically don't move, so you can't tilt them to access the other hole. Also the subframe is too close to the end of the bar (1" clearance) so the extra length in the arms would cause interference. But with the way the car handles I don't see why you would want to adjust it for more understeer, so it really doesn't matter. It's perfect now!
In anycase, we are looking for vendors to sell the bar through (so email me), but there is a very good chance that I may be able to support a group buy. As such I need to here from at least 25-30 people who could lay down $110 for each bar. I will also supply you with bushings for both the sway bar and tie rod ends. the stock bracket get reused.
If you are SERIOUSLY interested in getting in on a group buy, let me know buy posting here AND by email, so I can show the finance department here.
For the engineers out there specs are as follows:
Steel: SAE 4140 24mm (15% wall) tube, heat treated.
Coating: E-Coat (hardened powder coat)
