I am looking at buying some used torsion bars and the seller has sent me photos of the bars that include what looks to be some sort of part number stamped on the end of the bars.
This number that can be seen in the photo below is 4710 1088
Can anyone tell me anything about these bars? I don’t think this any sort of Jaguar part number but I could be wrong about that.
I don’t recall the number but do not appear to be the same as the ones off my E …
Google 4720 Torsion Bar. The company and specs will show up. (Sway-A-Way)
The bars aren’t mechanically “handed”, but assume left or right set after being tensioned. The Jag bars might have been pretensioned, nobody really knows. But the SwayAway bars were definitely not, so the L and R stamps must have been struck by the installer.
Are you referring to the installer at the factory?
These bars never saw the inside of a Jaguar factory. I was referring to whoever installed them.
So are they aftermarket bars from somewhere then?
Sway a Way is a US manufacturer, sold through several of the usuals. You’ll have to measure the diameter as they have several upgrade strengths. .785 is stock for S1 & S2, IIRC.
Do you think a pair of these is worth the $200 the seller is asking?
I have no idea. But here’s the SwayaWay page, so you can see what they cost new:
Thanks Michael
Are these advertised as new or used? I would say the joy you might feel in saving a few hundred dollars might be smothered by your dismay when you wind up having to reset the ride height multiple times.
I recently installed new bars of the original diameter, from SNG, using the factory setting gauge length. I haven’t done road testing yet but the initial ride height looks very good, first time out of the box.
Unless you are building a race car, you want to stay close to the original diameter. That’s just my opinion.
Larger diameters are sold as upgrades. But if you make the front stiffer, you should make the rear stiffer, and then you need siffer shocks and stab bars. It’s a slippery slope.
OK, the pair of torsion bars have arrived here via UPS. They look to be almost brand new. There is no rust or corrosion on them at all and in fact the finish on the bars looks really nice except for some nicks in the finish in some places.
The diameter of the bars along the shaft is 0.835
This sounds like these would be way more stiff than an original bar at 0.785 (according to Michael Frank).
Steven, that comes to 28% stiffer
Try them and see what you think.
Setting the trim heights will be trial and error.
They are high carbon steel so don’t let them rest even in little spots.
Sorry but what do you mean by “don’t let them rest even in little spots” ?
Puzzled me too. Then, the light came on… I suspect that was supposed to say “rust”, not “rest”…
Yup, I meant rust🙄
If you go to my article linked below, towards the end there is the graph that helps you estimate a new setting link dimension based on larger sized torsion bars. As pointed out, in a perfect world you would stiffen the rear also, to keep a balanced setup. Frankly, for normal street driving well below 10/10ths, you shouldn’t notice a difference. Maybe the most beneficial thing is that the car won’t settle/jounce so readily at dips in the road. There is a dip near my house that has a lot of gouges in the pavement on the far side. Hopefully none that I have left.
