Tube front lower control arm sway bar adapter links

mlangley

mlangley

Well-known member
We are in the process of building round tube lower front control arms and trying to find a way to attach the sway bar. We saw on the ground control web page a slide on link for the sway bar and was wondering if we could use somthing like this for the lower control? Has anyone tried this if so how did it work and where did you get the slide on links? We dont want to weld it on if we can help it we are going with titanium for the arms and it would be better if we has somthing to slid over it? I think we are going with 1.25" or 1.38" O.D. tube? still trying to see which is available. Once the link was slid into position we would tighten the heim link in and this should clamp it to the arm? Any pictures or ideas? has anyone does this befor and will it work. I dont want to go spending a lot of money/time just to find out it will not work.
 
Have a possible supply of "scrap" material so we may be able to get it for 20-30 a ft. so front arms will cost about 50-75 for material plus assembly. Aftermarket arms are bringing 200-400 a set in steel.I hope I can get a set for 1/2 price at 1/2 the wt. :roll:
 
Since you're not getting a lot of love here, I'll tell you what I think. I'm no expert.

Here's a pic of the slider you're suggesting - you'd move it to the lower control arm.

SBE46M3FR_dp.jpg

http://www.ground-control-store.com/ima ... 3FR_dp.jpg



1) Be careful with your design. A single tube from the balljoint inwards will need some triangulation *somewhere* to keep it from flexing. The "Stuff" I bought from Paul Yaw years ago yielded (under braking) at exactly the tube you're discussing. That was not a fun moment.

2) There's no reason I can see why a clamped-on swaybar mount would be any worse (from an FEA standpoint) than a welded-on mount. In fact, I believe a poorly-chosen location to weld on the mount may weaken that tube (welding along the sides instead of the top, if my reading serves me.)

3) What would concern me is that I think you want to get the sway bar mounts exactly the same distance from the inner pivot point. I've never really considered this, but if the motion ratios of the mounting points is not the same, I'm not really sure what happens.

So, it doesn't sound like a horrible idea to me, anyway. Be sure to measure those mounting distances and get them exactly the same (within .0625 or better)

My $0.02.
 
Don't ignore your ability to fix/reinforce/repair/jury rig them in the field.....Ti will be a nightmare!

For the few ounces you'll save I'd make them out of heat treatable 4130 and skip lunch for a week. You AND the car will come out ahead.
 
The reason I was looking for slide on is so that the left and right would be interchangable, right now we have tube square steel arms and the tabs are welded on so if you try to swab sides the tab is down, with a slide on just rotate it 180 deg an you are ready to go, my fabricator says the arms will be easy to build just trying to figure how to make some spares and to figure out how wall thickness to go with to equate the steel ones. Again I dont want end up with an arm that is $100+ ea and is almost the same weight as what we already have.
For the difference in weight it may not be practicle to try this if its less than a 1 lb diff then its not cost effective.
From what I have read Ti is .57 of the same of steel in the same thickness so it would be useful for larger pices, the arms on the car are aprox. 2.75 lbs ea so in theory they "should" be aprox 1.5 lbs ea in Ti which would be a little over a 1lb loss ea if the slip on bracket was not to heavy.
All this is from last years 50lb reducion, we had just got the car down to min wt and now are back chipping away for more wt. Like horse power its the last few that cost the most. :(
 
If the only point of the "slide on" sway bar mount is so you can swap the arms to the other side -

just weld tabs on both sides of each a-arm - two tabs per arm, one in the right place, and one on the bottom side.

So much cheaper than all that slide-over stuff. Also you can precisely put the tabs in the right place and forget about them.
 
I have and had years ago on a different car what I think you are describing. They work fine but they need to mount and pull pretty square to keep from moving down the arm. Pretty sure they are stock car stuff from Coleman.

On the first car I mounted the sway bar to the lower arm because the lower ball joint was huge compared to the upper. On my current car I run the bottom mounted sway bar off the top arm with a drop link. This because for ball joints I am using identical male rod ends top and bottom and the lower one already has to deal with spring forces. Just thought I would share the load.

My advice should be considered worth what you paid for it. No more. No engineering degree and no Holiday Inn Express stay here.
 
Mike,
I prefer you use solid steel. That way it won't break and we don't have to worry about running in to each other! :wink:
 
Mike we just have to keep away from the SRF's and SM's they seem to be the ones banging on us. I hope to have shed a few lbs by the time you see us, got to keep you on your toes.
This weekend my fabricator and I will use some scap to see if the weight savings is worth it.
 
Well after fabing up a set and running numbers the total wt loss is about .6-.8lbs ea not enough to warrent the change. So good idea but not practial.
Now for the good news the rear arms will net about 2-3 lbs ea and since we dont run rear bars no problem and since the rears are identical no problems and we will build 3 so we will have a spare, Thanks to all for the info.
 
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