Upgrade sway bars anyone

CJ seems to have a nice bit of kit.
Now running 6 inch and long drives, my car is great, any REAL improvement with upgraded sway bars and STOCK bushings and all throughout?
gtjoey1314

I have upgraded/different sway bars for my car. They were on the car before my multi-year refurb and I thought they helped a lot. I have the originals on the car now and there’s a noticeable difference on how the car feels and behaves in turns. The alternate bars will go back on shortly.

I seem to recall reading many moons ago on the forum about the rear end of the car not really needing a sway bar, or maybe my memory is a little screwed!

I went bone stock as the roads and poly bushes are a bit hard for me
I saw CJ has just an upgrade bar kit
I don’t need corners at 6 g”s
Just a teeek maybe
Maybe

I have had a CJ uprated front anti roll bar for years. So long I can’t remember what the old one felt like. I hear that IT alone (w/o up rated rear) the car should understeer. Maybe a little, but easily offset with throttle. No downside that I can feel Joe.

Les/Dave what was the fell upgrade
Flatter in turns!
Stiffer?
Not stiffer hopefully

What is it about the stock handling that you want to change? Understeer, oversteer, turn-in, body roll?

I’d suggest playing around with the easy variables first, like tire pressure, caster, toe and rear roll bar removal as mentioned before you start chasing your tail with aftermarket parts.

First it is a sway bar, then poly bushes, then stiffer torsion bars, then fully adjustable shocks, and before you know it your vintage racing. :wink:

Its fine, I liked the all upgrade in my convertable, BUT it changed the feel of the car to a 1990’s car, not an upgraded 60’s car.
My 67 is all new STOCK as you know, but if it makes it a hair more solid or tighter…Im game.
gtjoey1314

Flatter Joe. No degradation of ride quality. Still Jag smooth & supple.

Tomorrow I drive all day…lets see which direction…I love my smooth ride. Just maybe in turns a hair flatter would be nice :slight_smile:
Ill see …Ijust dont want a hard bottom out feel

My car felt a little stiffer but I was more interested in the flatter cornering they provide. Overall my view is that they were worth doing.

The effects are likely more noticeable in my 2+2 than in the SWB cars.

Yes: a common misconception is that heavy antiroll bars degrade ride quality: they don’t.

They will change the under-/oversteer characteristics.

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Thanks Guys, after the brake bottle upgrade, will call tomorrow.
gtjoey1314

Many years ago I had gone and replaced all suspension and steering pieces with new. Took the car out for a run on a very twisty mountain road, came back very disappointed. Installed the bar from CJ and once again attacked the same mountain road and came back with a smile on my face, it did the job.
Glenn

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As originally configured, the E Type was way soft, in roll.

Unless you enjoy driving over large pot holes…

That’s been my experience over the years: increase spring rate to decrease roll, increase anti-roll bars to control the understeer/oversteer. Of course, it is a balancing act along with the tire stiffness, the air pressure, the alignments and weight in the car. But generally stiffer springs give a flatter ride and the roll bars control the steering. IMO.

Just FWIW…

I’ve installed uprated ARBs on almost every car I’ve owned, and usually have added a rear bar if there wasn’t one. I’ve never been unhappy with the result. Undeniable improvement, minimal effort. Combined with good tires and shocks…and factory spring rates… I think uprated ARBs will give most drivers the improvement they are looking for with minimal effort.

I say this with street driving in mind, mild to ‘spirited’. If you’re regularly driving at 9/10ths, or you’re on the race track, a more thoughtful process will be called for.

This conversation comes up all the time in XJS circles…which I am more familiar with. Jaguar included/deleted the rear bar several times during the XJS’s 20 year production run.

In an interview Norman Dewis was asked about this. He explained that, after track testing the XJS, he advised superiors that “…the car doesn’t need a rear bar” and suggested it could be deleted, without any consumer detriment, as a cost-cutting measure. And, eventually, Jaguar did delete it…only to reinstate it a few years later, then delete it again, etc etc

Over the years many XJS owners have considered adding a rear bar but ultimately declined doing so as a result of Dewis’ remarks. What they fail to recognize is “…the car doesn’t need a rear bar” is not the same as “You should avoid using a rear bar” or “You won’t like having a rear bar”.

As it turns out many XJS owners do add the rear bar and I’ve yet to hear anyone regret doing so…with the caveat that some aftermarket offerings are simply too large. The factory-spec sizes work well.

The other obvious consideration is that Dewis made his recommendation based on how the car behaved on the track. And we all know that what works well on the track isn’t always what works well on the street.

Cheers
DD

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Especially in the case of rear ARBs, bigger is almost always not better.

Well, I submit the knowledge isn’t as nearly wide-spread as you and I might surmise… :frowning_face:

Johnny Pseudoracers almost always bollix this up, and then we see mods on street cars that, at best, provide little to no useful benefit, to at worst, make the car less safe/less drivable.

That’s what I often refer to as the “mind dyno.”

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Most cars have a bit of understeer at the limits. This is considered safer, because the natural instinct when losing control is to turn more and brake more. Which is likely the correct response if the car understeers. By contrast, if the car oversteers, instinctive response would cause a spin. Bigger rear bar increases understeer. Bigger front bar reduces understeer. It’s not black magic, there’s a correct rear bar for every front bar and a reason for every handling characteristic.

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If only it were that simple…and always correct: it’s not.

Typically, going stiffer on the front bar will increase the likelihood to understeer. And that would be the case in a FWD, RWD, or AWD car. The simple way of thinking about this is that stiffer bar will result in more load transfer to the outside tire in a corner, and take more load off the inside tire. The more load transfer, the less overall grip that axle will have. So a stiffer bar on the front – in relation to the rear – will lead to more understeer; a stiffer bar on the rear will lead towards more oversteer.

This is an extremely complex area, and like pulling the string on a sugar sack, installing/changing a single parameter won’t always result in a single outcome. This is a good ‘flow chart’ on the general effects of changing suspension parameters.

http://www.morpca.org/drivers-education-guide/understeer-oversteer/