The quality is top notch, but haven't had any time to play with it yet. I did go with Randy while he did his short test drive , but then I to hurry back down to Tucson for a party I was a couple hours late for. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try it out a bit more tomorrow after I trace drown a creaking sound that developed on the drive back.

 

Alright, awesome. Let us know what you think.

 

The bar does not seem to have any nice cushy bushings to absorb vibration, so you may just be stuck with that vibration.... . Sounds from bars like this with metal endlinks make noise, from what I've seen and heard. FYI...

It does look nice, though .

 

Well mine was #3 in the world to be installed, as far as production versions go!! Right after Steve's. Sorry for the crappy pics, all I had was my camera phone!!

As far as clinks and clatters, I think that what Steve may have is just more transmission of noise from the rear of the car and the subframe than prior to the install. I went from an Alta set at the "firm" position to the WMS and don't have any more squeaks than before. Steve was going from a stock bar. I did notice when moving from the stock setting to the firm Alta position a significant increase in rear end noise transmission. Everyone's milage may vary but I don't think the noise is WMS bar specific.

And FYI, "cushy" bushings are gonna squeak more than the material Randy is using in place of them. His require no lubrication and the material has been used in similar applications on Porsche's for more than 10 years without problems.

 

That looks great! I can't wait to hear what you guys think after you have had time to push the bar a little.

Nice Randy, very nice.

 

Wow. Seeing this bar installed is a bit disappointing.
I was going to get this bar for my 'race' Mini that I'm building, but I'm thinking not now.
You say that that is set up in the firm position. Who set it there, Randy? What is this position equivalent to on an aftermarket 22mm bar?
Just looks like a ton of wasted soft setting and hardly any firmer setting left.

Maybe a stiffer bar can be had?

 

i wanna know more bout this creakin' sound

 

As far as stiffness range goes it will run softer than stock to 350% stiffer than stock. My Alta 22mm bar was about 300-310%. Randy set mine up about the same percentage as the alta.

Given this I had the same concerns as you. i.e. not that much more stiffness than with a Alta for more money. What sold me, and should sell a serious racer like yourself are the droplinks and the adjustability. Sure you can run 350%, but the bigger thing for me was the drops allow you to dial in more or less preload on the sides of the bar seperately. This way, if you are tracking a predominately right hand or left hand turn track or autoX course, you can set up the preload for more or less oversteer for left or right turns. You can also adjust out the minor unequal preload inherent in the subframe. Mine personally with a one piece bar was such that I had to jack up the wheel hub and rotor to disconnnect the factory drop from my alta. Now I can dial that out by indicidually adjusting the preload both on the links and on the splines of the swaybar.

Talking to Randy for about 2 hours about this and 3 hours about twin charging has sold me on both at this point. The twin charge is gonna wait until I am more flush and can take week of vacation to go to Denver to spend $6k, but the sway is already done!

 

Me too I'm still working it, but here's a few more pics for now ...



now here's an easier way to get the old bar out

 

More pics here

 

Nice looking sway bar. Looking foward to hereing how it holds up.

Nice pics on our gallery BTW.

 

I'm not so sure asymmetric end settings offer any difference than just the average lever ratio between the two.

 

Is there a part missing here? Looks like a problem to me. (and I'm not talking about the shock)
I'm not trying to cut this bar down here. I was looking forward to getting one myself as I think it's a great idea. I've told anyone who asks that they should look into it.

 

Hehehehehehe!!!

That's the problem Steve was having with a creak. They forgot the strut! Seriously, it did go back in.

Great pictures Steve!

 

The shape of the bar end - any bar end - will greatly influence how a bar works. For example, typical solid or hollow round bars posess flattened areas at each end. The shape of this portion of the bar will also influence how it works.

Those fancy ends on Randy's bar more than likely work better than others.

The percentages given for this bar range up to 350% more than stock. Who measure this? I would have expected more based upon the design...in reality, 350% is a lot more in any world...more, is more than likely not desirable.

Materials will also influence how a bar works. Al vs Steel alloy vs Ti - these all posses different characterisitics.

 

Meb: what is your take about an asymmetric setting, Left vs Right?

my think is this: say L is shorter than Right (L<R)...compressing the LS gives a compression lever arm of L, but that applies less torque to the R thus compensating. same logic if you taklk about twist angle.???

 

...John, I missed something. I went back to read more, but couldn't find anything that speaks to your thoughts. Where should I go look or read?

Michael

 

If there is a strange noise them I might suspect this area. Seems to be missing an important piece. Anyone else see the problem I 'think' I see?

 

John, are you speaking of the "preload" stuff?

 

a wild and very uneducated guess, perhaps not enough clearance when the bar goes up?

 

Are you thinking of another bolt lock type thing on the other side to keep the bolt from torque(ing up and down)? Or even a sleve that is supposed to go in the bolt? The other side it just has a washer? Nylon lock nuts might have been good too but .

 

Ahhhhh, you thing the bolt on the inside of the endlink might be moving enough to make contact?

It looks like it was different in the original CAD drawing ...

 

yah it looks like it might be. I wonder why that's not there?

 

Thanks, but I don't think that's the problem I'm having. I have very similar droplinks on my BMW so I'm familiar with the normal sounds associated with these links.

I did find one problem yesterday though. The right rear endlink was making contact with the spring, but I was able reposition the bar to clear both sides. I thought that would solve my creaking problem, so I put everything back together and dropped the car back down. After a short test drive the creaking was still there, but I didn't have time to work on the car. I'm going to try again today and see if I can't find the source of the problem.

Wish me luck

 

Yea, looks like that piece got dropped between the CAD drawing and the parts list...



If the gap was sized to use a spacer, then you should have one on both sides... Perhaps the bolt is larger in the center than at the threads, but you can't tell since all the actual pictures show that one area pre-assembled for some reason