Frankenvette

Just purchased Energy Suspension polyurethane endlinks for front sway bar. The spacer in the middle is about 1/4" longer than the ones currently installed on my vette. My question is this... how do I determine the proper spacer length?

norvalwilhelm

The proper spacer length varies with ride height. All suspension and steering parts should be at right angles, 90 degrees to be most effective.
If I was setting up a sway bar from scratch I would have the car flat on the ground, the sway bar positioned so the arms of the sway bar are parallel to the ground or pointing straight back , not up slightly at the end or down at the end but straight back and the link should be adjusted so when installed it holds this position.
A lower car or taller car needs a different length of connecting link.

Frankenvette

Thanks Norval. As always you are a wealth of info. I suspected that the arms of the sway bar should be parallel to the ground but was not sure. Currently my swaybar is not.

flynhi

Norval,
Why does this make a difference?
It seems as if a non binding bar in a suspension with medium springs (that don't have a great deeal of vertical travel) could be up or down a bit when the car is at rest without causing a problem.

norvalwilhelm

Norval,
Why does this make a difference?


It doesn't matter. The only reason you want 90 degree's on suspension parts is so they can be tuned easier. A bar that has a certain rating only has that rating if all angles are right angle. Any deviation from this 90 degrees reduces the load rating of the bar.
Another example is a spring rated at say 300 pounds per inch. That is assuming a spring standing straight up. Lay the spring on and angle and the forces change, changing the rate of the spring.
Race cars like a tunable suspension and the strighter things are the more predictable the changes are.
To you it won't matter.

That said our suspension are a far cry from being without bind. NO stock suspension will move through it's range of travel without running into severe bind.
If you were really energetic and removed one spring, and the sway bar linkage from the other side and tried running the suspension with the removed spring throughout it's travel you would find that the sway bar linkage goes solid. It actually bends the little rubber donuts at the end of it travel.
Look at any old sway bar linkage and some of the donuts are badly deformed. This is caused by the linkage going into bind.
The only solution for binding linkage beside heavy springs that tie the front end down so you end up with little travel is HEIM JOINTS or Rod ends.

I have gone totally through my front end, springs out, checking for any binding and there is NO way you can make the stock style sway bar linkage work, NO WAY.
Well the only way is 550 pound springs and prevent the front end from going anywhere near it's range of travel.
To go to a heim joint setup requires rewelded lower A arm mounts and a new upper mount on the sway bar itself.
I went this route because it is the only way you can get 7 inches of wheel travel and NOT run into bind.
I am extremely ANNAL on suspension setup so I went to the extra trouble
Double click to enlarge

gkull

I don't have Norval's machining skills and I'm cheaper. I used heavy wall box tubing to space the poly bushings down lower than the frame and just bought longer bolts than what came with the sway bar.

LiveandLetDrive

Don't count on 550s saving your endlinks. I recently discovered a bent endlink. I can't decide if it was hard driving or raising on a jack without disconnecting the swaybar first (550s pressed the suspension beyond it's normal travel) Either way, that convinced me to go with heimed endlinks as soon as I can scrape the resources together.

-Chris

norvalwilhelm

The 550 springs are limiting travel when driving down the road so the stock type linkage will not go into bind. If you run softer springs allowing the wheels to move through there full travel heim joints are the only way to go.
NOthing else will work.