Thinking about installing one in the front.
I understand they assist in transferring weight in cornering.
Mechanically, how do they work?
Thanks!
Mark

This is one of the most dramatic improvements that you can make to your cars handling.

Sorry, wife just came home and I have to move things so she can get in the garage. I'll describe it functionally in a bit...

Anti-roll bars provide two main functions. The first function is the reduction of body lean. The reduction of body lean is dependent on the total roll stiffness of the vehicle. Increasing the total roll stiffness of a vehicle does not change the steady state total load (weight) transfer from the inside wheels to the outside wheels, it only reduces body lean. The total lateral load transfer is determined by the CG height and track width.

The other function of anti-roll bars is to tune the handling balance of a car. Understeer or oversteer behavior can be tuned out by changing the proportion of the total roll stiffness that comes from the front and rear axles. Increasing the proportion of roll stiffness at the front increases the proportion of the total load transfer that the front axle reacts to—and decreases the proportion that the rear axle reacts to. In general, this makes the outer front wheel run at a comparatively higher slip angle, and the outer rear wheel to run at a comparatively lower slip angle, which is an understeer effect. Increasing the proportion of roll stiffness at the rear axle has the opposite effect and decreases understeer.

Ok, never mind... Larmo handled that nicely.

On another level, it acts as a spring that ties the two wheels on that end of the car together. Moving the one wheel up will tend to pull the other wheel up; moving the one wheel down will tend to pull the other wheel down.

Larmo covered the whys and wherefores. Hopefully the above is a decent (if very simple!) explanation of the hows.

--DD

I'm going to need to reread Larmo's post a couple more times before I really appreciate my anti-sway bars. Dude knows his stuff.

One big thing to consider when you add a front and or rear sway bar is the spring rate.

Transfer of the weight during braking ect... Dave is correct, the sway bar adds to the spring rate and should be considered in the calculation. There are online spring rate calculators that work pretty well.

I ended up redoing all my shocks tie rods and springs when I added a front sway bar. I also ended up using adjustable drop links which are a must if you want to prevent pre-loading the bar.

Make sure if you are considering it is to make the change to the turbo tie rods as well. The difference in handling and responsiveness is HUGE.

In my opinion for street use and spirited driving a rear bar is not necessary.

I did the front sway bar on my '73 that never had them and loved it.

The rear install really sealed the deal. I've read that a few people don't think the rear one is necessary, I beg to differ. I like mine.

depends on what you wanna do with the car ...i like them on really fast tracks cars more stable over 100mph ,but AX and really tight stuff i dont want them at all the car rotates the tight corners better


JMO and maybe my driving style have fun

I installed both ft and rear sway bars plus put 185 lb rear springs plus Koni sport shocks on and it handles very good

...at the track, I recall only seeing one car run with a rear bar - its very, very rare on 914 (race cars).

T

Does anyone make a quick disconnect for the rear sway bars?

I know on some off-road Jeeps they disconnect the sway bars to get more articulation going over big rocks and such. Could something similar be adapted to the 914 rear sway bars?

You just disconnect of of the drop links or heims on one side...

Tony