I am looking for opinions on front anti-sway preload. With different degrees of responsiveness, I am assuming you should have different amounts for street versus track or autox?
Thanks.

 

In my opinion, you don't want any preload on the swaybar because it artificially changes the behavior of the car... The best setup is neutral...

 

Absolutly, ... preload is a big no-no unless you are circle tracking. No preload!

 

"Thirded" - preload changes the "wedge" applied to the car on level ground, that is, it changes the diagonal weight applied across a front wheel and the opposing rear wheel. It does this by adjusting the roll angle bias of the swaybar. Unlike adjusting springs, though, the effect is VERY dependent on the car's roll angle, which makes it a bad idea on anything that turns both directions.

 

Concur - I like turning both directions - nothing against NASCAR...

 

My car is set at neutral and will stay that way. After reading Matt's suspension article in the latest MC2 where he talked about taking out preload with endlinks when lowering with coilovers, I visited a vendors site that sells endlinks and they mentioned adding preload. The latter didn't make a lot of sense to me.

Thanks for the input.

 

I haven't lowered our Mini.....yet.

But do you really HAVE to shorten the end links when you lower the car? I know that you're supposed to keep the sway bar relatively level to the ground, but unless you're lowering 3-4 inches the stock end links should be fine.....right?

 

When you lower the car, yes... But, even cars with stock suspensions have preload. All you have to do is sit in the driver's seat...

 

Unless you have someone adjust the length of the end-links while your in the car

 

I guess what I meant was.....do you really need to "shorten" them to lower the car? I think that was the original question. I've been thinking about it in my head (too lazy to go look), and because the links mount to the a-arm and the base of the shock, I don't think lowering the car will have any impact on the sway bar end links.

Now if you want to be really thorough, by all means, get some adjustable end links, find someone with a pit in their garage (level floor), and then adjust the end links so there's no pre-load.

 

Imagine a swaybar in sideview with the bar ends horizontal. When a car rolls, the torque tube portion will twist up on one side and down on the other - but equally. Now imagine the same swaybar with the bar ends angled up at say 20 degrees. When the car rolls in this scenario, one bar end has greater leverage than the other due to it position with respect to the center line of the torque tube. The twist is not equal.

And also, in the second scenario, a tremendous amount of load, shear load, is now placed on the swaybar bushings...these have been know to snap. so if you experiement with a different orientation, keep an eye on those bushing retainers.

You can use this to your advantage if you want the bar to react faster or slower, but this requires a bit of experimentation. This is not preload and I'll fifth the no preload.

The mini's rear bar does angle up a bit and there is nothing wrong with maintaining that orientation - to my way of thinking. There isn't a lot of room for much else anyway.

 

Which you have to have adjustable end-links for...