MG-Cars.info

Welcome to our Site for MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey Car Information.

Parts

TR parts and Triumph parts, TR bits, Triumph Car Spares and accessories are available for TR2, TR3, TR3A, TR4, TR4A, TR5, TR6, TR7, TR8, Spitfire and Stag and other TR models are available from British car spares and parts company LBCarCo.

Triumph TR6 - TR6 Uprated Sway Bar

Hi, I recently bought an uprated front sway bar from Victoria British. Because of it's increased diameter (7/8" vs 11/16") it requires new mounting brackets that, even when mounted as far forward as possible, push the ends back to a point where I cannot fit the links.

Has anyone fitted one of these bars? Am I mounting it incorrectly or should I use different links?

Thanks for any help.

John
John Friar

John- Be very careful when adding a Larger front bar. You need to match it with an appropriate rear bar or wierd handling characteristics can happen.
Don (Lynnwood)
DON KELLY

John, Don is right you must install the 3/4" rear bar as well or you will have a very unpredictable car.
I have installed both and it handles much better than before.
Remember that those links to the A arms are moveable.
They probably don't want to move after all those years
in the same posistion but they will with a little work.
Keep all the bolts loose until everything lines up and secure. A long screw driver or breaker bar is invaluable for this job, wedge it in there and bend the sway bar or link until it fits.

John, I just went out and checked my car and you will almost certainly have to drill new mounting holes for
the straight part of the bar. If I remember right I mounted the bar to the links first then pushed the bar up till it hit the Radiator scuff pan, marked where the holes needed to be and drilled new holes. A larger bar requires a larger base( holes farther apart).
But if you look at that Rad.scuff pan you'll notice that it is only connected to the frame at two closely
placed points(four bolts total) and you could tighten those bolts until you have squished the box frame flat.
However, if you snug up those four bolts that hold the Rad. scuff pan to the frame and then find the trailing edge of the scuff pan where it touches the bottom of the frame and drill and tap a new thread there so you can then bolt the scuff pan directly to the frame with no squish zone you'll have a sway bar that REALLY works. Before I made that last modification I know my scuff pan was moving on hard corners and now it doesn't. Might be worth thinking about.
Chris
Christopher T.

Don and Chris, thanks for your replies.

I do intend to fit a rear bar as well -- your point about avoiding unpredictable handling is well taken.

This is part of a complete frame off restoration. I'm at the bolting back together stage. I have 2 brand new links, so removal is not the issue here. The issue is that in order to mount the fatter bar on the scuff pan the bar has ended up about 1 inch further back than the orginal. This places the link holes 1 inch further back and almost under the lower wishbone. I see no way of mounting the bar further forward. As it is, the front bolts are at the point that the scuff pan 'lips' up.

Thanks again

John
John Friar

John - not sure about the VB bar being different dimensions to the OE one - have you laid one on the other? Different length bars could have an effect on handling. At the very least, the effect of a larger diameter bar is reduced if the length of the end returns is longer than standard.

I found that installing a 7/8" front sway bar immediately improved the understeer and after 5 years of fast road and occasional track time have not experienced any unusual behaviour. I do not have a rear bar. It's also fitted with standard road springs, Koni shocks F&R, all eurethane bushings, solid steering rack mounts and 1.5° neg camber up front. It is not at all 'twitchy' and it's maybe a sign of age but I have yet to "end to end" it - although there have be a couple of close ones!

The front bar is mounted to the radiator shield with Stauff pipe clamps. You can see a typical example at http://www.stauff.com/Stauff/Australia/English/Clamps.asp (You can probably source these locally althought this is a link to the aussie site).

The mounting is ideal as it uses the original mounting holes and it allows the bar to rotate but not distort flexurally as rubber, and to a lesser extent, eurethane, does. To cap it off, they are cheaper and stronger than the originals.

cheers
Roger
Roger H

Roger,

Thanks for yor reply - some very useful information there. I have checked by bar against the old OEM I have and, dimensionally, they're identical. The issue really is that the new brackets cause it to be mounted too far back. Your solution of using Stauff pipe clamps sounds ideal. It appears I can get them here so I think I'll give that a go.

The other issue that I have, that I forgot to mention earlier, is with attaching the links to the bar when using eurethane bushes. The thread on the links isn't long enough to get the nut on. The bushes cannot be compressed (easily) either. Do you know if a link with an extra long threaded part is available?

Thanks

John
John Friar

John - Your last post gave a possible clue as to the cause your difficulty refitting the bar. If the car is not at fully laden weight, the geomentry could cause a problem. Secondly, after they are fitted, the links are not vertical but are perpendicular to the bottom wishbone (when viewed from the front). From memory they also are angled slightly forward at the bar end.

Follow Chris T's advice and keep all the bolts at the link end as loose as you can to get the thing fitted.

It was a while ago I last changed mine, but I remember using a hydraulic jack to raise the bar gradually to meet the links then getting my son to pump it up while I strained to align them through the holes! The jack was needed as it forced the end of the bar up and compressed the upper bush just enough to get the lower one on. The exercise did test my restraint and broadened my son's vocabluary slightly.

Good luck
Roger
Roger H

John,
Roger's coment jogged my memory. He's right about a fully loaded car at least in the final stages of fitting and tightening. Do your self a favor,
tape up your knucles now before you start.
Chris
Christopher T.

This thread was discussed between 11/09/2005 and 13/09/2005

Triumph TR6 index