NAERC rear sway bar question?

[RStaggs]

The first pic is built by NAERC. They have their linkage mount on top of the upper a-arm? On a real chassis (murci or diablo) the mounts are on the bottom side of the upper a-arm. Interesting, wonder if NAERC accidentally flipped the left and right a-arms? Flipping a-arms (left side to right side) will change the linkage mounts, from bottom to top. The following pics are from a real Murcielago chassis. OEM sway bar attaches to the upper a-arm w/ a bottom side linkage mount. Initially I planed on making my own sway bars, and quickly found out a lot of engineering goes into them. More than I wanted to do. Hence why I went with oem sway bars. I have a front oem sway bar coming. I`ll post details when I receive it, in case someone`s interested.

[76mx]

Quite welcome, I did not realize until now that a NAERC chassis linked the swaybars to the upper a-arm so I have learned something as well. Swaybars are always attached to the lower arm but a transaxle in the middle makes this just about impossible for this type of car, and an axle with two shocks makes raising the swaybar and lengthening the linkage likewise almost impossible. I ran into this on my Chupacabra project and after lengthy discussions with Energy Suspension, the short answer is that the swaybar does not know which a-arm it is attached to, so long as the Archemedes Principle is taken into consideration when attaching it to a 9" upper arm as opposed to a 16" lower arm. The rating of a swaybar is subjective, a 200lb bar on the bottom may be a 600lb bar on the top with both mounted at the same outboard distance, and that same bar will give even more entirely different readings on another car. 

[RStaggs]

Thanks all you guys for looking! That makes sense why I don’t have the page... it’s not there. Lol. I’ll do as you suggest 76mx. Great info!!!

[76mx]

Rstaggs,
   The answer to the linkage length is not a given, it depends on your tire size and ride height, which will determine the location of your lower linkage mount. On the other end, a swaybar is not linear like spring resistance, it is progressive. The arms need to be at 3 O'Clock or 9 O'clock to give an accurate rating, too much or too little quickly progresses into way too high a rating, not to mention causing travel bind and horrible geometry. From the picture below, set your swaybar at about 8:30 O'clock so it's motion is centered around the 9 O'Clock sweet spot, then measure the a-arm mount centerline to the swaybar mount centerline. That is your optimal linkage length.   

[99svmonterey]

I checked my drawings and as autopro mentioned and I couldn't find any specific drawing for the front bar. The only relevant drawings I found were ODC-1310 for the front bar mounting plates and ODC-1920 for the front upper frame detail. They provide the center to center dimension for the bar to brackets mount holes which is 37" but not link to link.

[autopro]

Do you know the sheet number that you need?  I don't remember there being one for the rear sway bar unlike the front since you don't need to modify it in any way.

[eddie]

if I remember I had to mod the rear sway bar a bit to fit stabilizer links ( Windstar) as per JIM D instruction  . sorry no specs, body is mounted on .

[RStaggs]

Thanks for the reply diablodoc. That's parts list tells me it`s a Ford Windstar. More specific, I`m wanting to know the dimension from sway bar linkage eye whole (CL) to eye whole? FYI an Lamborghini OEM sway bar in 47.75" from linkage eye to eye. I`m thinking the OEM sway bar is longer than what the plans call for?

[diablodoc]

NAERC used the front sway bar off a '95-'98 Ford Windstar for their rear sway bar.

[RStaggs]

I’m missing the rear sway bar page for a NAERC chassis. Can someone please post it, or can tell me what the Overall dimensions are? I Bought a OEM sway bar, and I’m wanting to reference.