Topic: Re: Front sway bar bushing upgrade

[lil goat]

You ordered rear for your ZOK NA bar, 25 mm , here is the info for the front of the  NA. Be $20 well spent. Amazon does not have them but Jegs does,  9-5162G for black, R on end for red - Energy Suspension Universal Greaseable Sway Bar Bushings 1 1/16 inch or 27MM these are for the NA ONLY $15.99 plus shipping
http://www.jegs.com/i/Energy+Suspension/355/9-5162G/10002/-1

[lil goat]

To each his own Bob, not sure I could tell those subtle differences, I am using the stock bar up front, and they said in the instructions to use synthetic grease on the Enegry suspension bushings, cost a whooping $4.00 so why not. I use synthetic everywhere else.

[lil goat]

My front ones are here I just need to put them on, we will see what I think, I know Bob's car is already a lot stiffer than mine he has lots of urethane in places much harder to replace, he can't use a backbone due to rules so we shall see and he has the Z0K front bar my front bar is stock, they are different set ups. I can always switch them back easy enough. For $13 I will be happy to be a guinea pig, I may not even notice a difference. If nothing else I will be happy to have a grease fitting to quiet that damn squeak in winter.

[lil goat]

I installed the front bushings, first off they shipped the wrong ones, no grease fitting, what do I want for $12 I guess. I installed them anyway, REALLY easy, drive up on ramps, take out 2 15mm bolts each side install. the ones that were on there are the ones from the tech bulletin THEY ARE HUGE. I would guess at least 3/4" thick all the way around maybe more. The replacements are maybe a 1/4" they actually move the position of the bar up a bit. I went for a test run. Hit some extreme speeds and the car feels less vague, handling is a bit more precise and it would seem less understeer, I like it. I am not sure how they would be with other suspension setups but with all the DDM goodies and the HKS coilovers seem to work well. I have the damping pretty high on the shocks. I did notice the bushing seemed to be a bit small, it fit but there was a small gap when everything was tightened down. I wonder if the front bar may not be 34mm instead of 33mm. I may blow another $17 and get the bigger set with the grease fittings, the new ones are no more than 1/3 the size of the stock ones. Bob said he didn't like them with the Z0K bar, I like them with the stock bar, certainly worth the money in my book. I am sure I want them to feel better and am a bit prejudice, I can honestly say you will feel a difference. If it is good or bad, that is for each to decide, sure is easy and inexpensive.

[lil goat]

OK I am showing my age hear but if I remember right the rear bar effects the front and the front effects the rear at least to some degree. I have noticed two things with the new front bushings, the front seems to require a little less input to turn and the rear seems a bit looser. I have not played with damping yet. I feel like I need to soften the rear a bit, they are pretty stiff now. The fronts feel about right. with 0 being stiffest I am at at +14 in front and +17 in the rear. Before I put on the stiffer front bushings I was going to increase damping in the rear. I am going to try the 34mm bushings up front.

The sway bar is actually a preloaded lever, when you change the front bushings not only does it change the bushing to a stiffer bushing it changes the preload as it is so much thinner. It moves the bar about 3/4 of an inch closer to the frame. Bob can probably explain this better than I can but I am sure it has an effect. If I understand it correctly this will make the bar stiffer. I think even more stiffness could be achieved by changing the end links to shorter ones. They are also very cheap I may try this at some point. I think ours are 2 7/8 " now. I like the cheap easy stuff, if it doesn't work just change it back.

[lil goat]

OK I get most of what you said Bob, I have the HKS coilovers, they spring rate are whatever HKS made them. What I was reffering to was the the actual bushing and bracket are very different in size. OK here is the stock bushing and bracket O

Here is the polyurethane one O the wall of the bushing is about 1/4 as thick all the way around. Enough that it changes the angle between the end link and bar. I was reading about all this on the Hotchkis site. I do not fully understand all this admittedly, and I know what happens with my lowered suspension and different spring rates, may not be the same on a car with the stock suspension. If I still had stock suspension, I would not hesitate to spend $20 to see what would happen, for now I like the reduced vagueness of the stiffer bushings but am not completely used to it, there is something that is not quite right for daily driving, it is great out running the twisties, and have I not been to the auto X yet. I think I need a bit of fine tuning in the damping but that is pretty easy. I can certainly feel the difference, was not sure it would be noticeable.

[lil goat]

U-238 measured the bar it is not 33mm but 33.5mm. On mine there is a small gap so I am ordering 34mm bushings. I did some VERY high speed driving this morning, at high speeds, I mean above 80 the cornering is much improved and you can really feel a difference, at slower speeds it is not as smooth and that may be the bushings being tight. I really really like the high speed feel, out on a road course these would work very well. I will take a picture of the stock bushing today, others are on the car but I can take a picture of the new 34's when they get here. It is a huge difference in the wall thickness.

[lil goat]

The 34's are on there way, today it is raining, and it's been raining all night the back end stepped out quite easily this morning, was easy to control but for certain came out easier than before. I need to reduce damping or maybe the 34's will help with this. I thought about honing them out but, even though I ordered the greasable ones I got the non greasable 33's. At $12 wasn't worth sending them back, new 34's  have grease fittings. Jegs has them.