thicknees of front sway bar

I already have a 10 mm bar installed and after making the tire and tank change ,I am fairly certain .I will be resetting the front end height.
Sence I will want to remove the beam to make re doing the undercoating easyer should I upgrade the sway bar to a 12MM or is the 10MM fine???

It depends on your front end type, transaxle type, shock absorbers, and weight distribution. I have the big tank, full sized spare in the trunk, IRS transaxle, and a ball-joint front end with Bilstein shocks - IM installed an adjustable 19mm tubular sway bar made for a Porsche 911. The bar is currently set at "medium" tension and works very well for my driving style. Remember that VS, JPS, CMC, and Fiberfab cars have more rear weight bias (engine/transaxle in my IM is about 2 3/4" farther forward) so you might want to try a bar in the neighborhood of 15mm or 16mm (stiffness goes up as the square of the diameter?). Read Greg Ward's article on VW handling (swing-axle and IRS) at www.callook.com.

That's a great article. The site is www.cal-look.com... u gotta have that "-".

I ordered a 3/4 " sway bar from CIPI LTD. If its to thick I will grind off a even amount all the way accross it.

I'm not sure you would have to do it all the way across. If you just do it in the middle for about 9 inches that should have the same effect as going all the way accross... allowing a reasonable area for the torsion to soften.

If that would be enough? I can do it on the car a little at a time. Thanks!!!

This Is a thick Sway bar!!! I am Sure I better trim it down before putting it on. I am guessing about 14mm will be my target. Its 17mm plus right now.

Barry, I have a 3/4in. sway bar on the front of my VS, with a camber compensater on the rear and it handles real good. You might try it full size first. Eddie

OK : Eddie ,
I will try the sway bar first.

I need more imfo on the camber comensaters, What do they look like and how do they attach ,and work?

Here is a link to the part at JC Whitney www.jcwhitney.com/productnoitem.jhtml?CATID=38368&BQ=jcw2

Barry

The camber compensator attaches under your Transaxle via four bolts, and then attaches to the axle tubes out near the end of your straight axle tubes. They are usually made of flat metal with "sprung" ability to flex without breaking and are clamped at the axle ends with metal straps, much like u-bolts would. The center section bolted to the Transaxle bottom serves as the stationary point for the whole compensator bar. It acts like a big spring to keep the axles tubes above horizontal. An absolute must for all swing axle cars. You'll be impressed by the improvement in handling. It works by greatly reducing the amount of positive camber the inside rear wheel goes into when cornering. You can throw your car into the turns with a lot more confidence than you ever could previously. Works great when combined with the front sway bar, George often sources a great article on suspension upgrades on the Cal Look forum. Look it up, you'll get some ideas from that excellent article.

For two types of Camber Compensators, look at CB Performance online and most of the other majors (California Pacific is a good source) for the other one. The type I use is the one you will find at the California Pacific Web Site.

Hope this helps.

Jim OKC "Dub-U-Tub"


(Message Edited 9/8/2002 11:15:56 PM)