Hello,
There is a set of stock drop links in the classified section.
Would they fit a 19mm sway bar?

Or should the 19mm sway bar be purchased as a set?
If so: which set is best for street use (value and quality)?

Thanks

The answer is most likely no, but it depends on the 19mm bar you're talking about.

Front bars range from JC Whitney (which I wouldn't use!), through Weltmeister, up to Tarrett and possibly Smart Racing. Generally in increasing order of both quality and cost. The WM ones work, but do not use the "no gas tank removal" installation kit--and it's generally better to weld in the nut plates.

--DD

Thanks Dave...
In that case I will not purchase the parts in from the classifieds.

I'm still looking for the right bar to buy.
Some sell hollow bars. An most are complete kits.
I ordered the reinforcement triangles from 914ltd, just to get started.

Unfortunately the search function doesnt work on this site. Because I'm sure there is a lot of info about which (Size) Swaybar to use for street use.

Are you upgrading or installing new?

New Bars available over at Sierra Madre.

Installing new.
Ordered the mounting brackets (that need to be welded in place) yesterday.
There is this fellow "Ian Karr" that post YouTube videos, making it appear to be doable.

Now I need to find the correct Sway bar system to use.
The car is a 1972-4, with 103mm cylinders.

Any advise regarding size, or hollow vs solid bar?

I have a weltmeister 22mm sway bar that will be for sale soon. I replaced the crappy welt drop links with Tarret drop links. Let me know if you are interested.

+1 on the Tarret drop links.

I gave the stock ones away.

I am definitely interested in purchasing this from you.
Is this the correct size for street use?

Yes 22 is fine for street as it is adjustable.This came on my car when it had stock suspension and was just fine. Sending PM

The appropriate size depends on more than just the use of the car. It also depends on the rest of the suspension. A car with very stiff rear springs and stock front torsion bars would want a sizeable front sway bar in order to make the roll stiffness similar on both ends.

You can adjust an adjustable bar, obviously. If you have a large bar and want a small amount of roll stiffness, you may wind up making very very small adjustments. With a softer bar, you would be making larger adjustments to get the same effect.

The stock non-adjustable bar is 15mm. The 19mm adjustable ones are often seen as a reasonable replacement when the rest of the suspension is stock. The 21mm ones are obviously stiffer and are best when paired with something like 150 lb/in rear springs or larger.

Note that adding a rear bar changes the rear roll stiffness and the desired front bar size can change there as well.

--DD

Thanks DD.
I’m considering the bar that Travis is offering (see pic above).
From what I understand, my rear springs are 180#.

I found some sway bar calculators online and did some number crunching.

The sway bar is 38" long overall, but I believe you are to measure the effective length right behind the lever arm, so I used 36" length.

For the lever arms, they are 6", the adjustment rate is about 2.5 to 6". Here are the numbers.

This would just be for the sway bar rate, not wheel rate. The stock mounting is about 3.5" to the middle of the strut. I think calculating an extra 3.5 inches in lever arm length should give you the wheel rate?

The rate being?
Force (lbs) on the lever-arm at opposing side?

Seems that DD is correct, that lots of adjustment can be made here.

The calculator is here. http://www.gtsparkplugs.com/Sway-Bar-Calculator.html

Below is a depiction of what to measure.

I updated for wheel rate, I am assuming that we need to add 3.5 inches of A-arm length to get wheel rate. I am sure someone will chime in if I have this wrong

Oh, stock and turbo sway bars are solid, so the ID is zero. My SRP bar is hollow and has a .120 wall thickness, I am assuming the welt bars are the same wall thickness.

Travis,
This good information, I wish we had these online calculators when I was setting up suspension for racers.

The Weltmeister sway bars are solid.

The numbers for the turbo sway bar seem off to me compared to the Weltmeister bars but if your calculations for the Weltmeister bars assumed they were hollow that would explain it.

Jim

I will check tomorrow when I pull the welt bar. While they look solid, I believe that is only a solid chunk of metal pressed into the hollow bar for mounting the lever arms.

Here is a pic of my srp bar, you can see what I described above.

I have installed probably 30 or more of them and have 2 here at the house, the Weltmeister bars are solid not hollow.

The owner of the shop I worked for was friends with the owner of Automotion and Weltmeister, Tom Green (I think that is the right name) and periodically we did testing and development for him.
We had a 24mm Weltmeister sway bar we installed in a few of cars to test it, w 911s and a 914.
Too stiff for most applications and the rest of the hardware was going to need upgrading, it never went into production.

The SRP bar is a very nice quality bar, well designed and built.

Jim

Jim, you are right the welt bar is solid. Also, the lever arm adjustment range is about 3.5 to 7.5 inches.

I redid the calculations for the weltmiester bars as a solid bar instead of hollow.

A bit of a bummer. While my new sway bar is like jewelery, it is about the same effective rate as the bar that I just pulled from the car. A CFR bar is starting to look inciting.

So I ended up buying the hollow SRP kit from Travis.
It comes with an Aluminum backing plate. This would allow an installation without welding in the reinforcement triangle (which I already ordered from 914ltd).

Does the brain trust believe that I could use it that way? Or should I stilll weld in the reinforcement triangle (and not use the sandwich plate)?
Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Just bolting in will work, but it can cause a crack in the tub where the bar passes through. I had this issue on my car. I repaired the crack and welded the support triangle in place.

The work has been done.
Thanks Y’all for helping out with the advise.
Will test drive it when the tank is back in (cleaning it now).

Click to view attachment

Sorry for the picture being sideways.

Car corners like it's on rails.
For the person that is reading this, but has not yet installed a front sway-bar, I have to say.

DO NOT WAIT ANY LONGER. It's definitely worth the effort (looks scarier than it realy is).

Final thanks to Chris at Tangerine, who shipped a part ultra fast for me to complete the work.

Can any one tell me what size rear suspension I have?
Diameter of the coil is 10mm.The spring is 7 windings long.

Click to view attachment

white shocks are usually kyb's. kill your back

I can tell your rear shocks are terrible.

If you are planning on changing the spring rate I would recommending holding off and replacing the rear shocks with a set of Bilsteins first as the ride quality will change drastically.

??? What just happened ???

I’m surprised that ya’ll are telling me this. I do not even know what type/brand shocks I have.
Just tried to find out what spring rate I have.

But I will put “new shocks” on my wish-list.

White shocks are usually KYB, which has gotten a reputation in the 914 world as "Kill Your Back".

As for the spring rate, I can only suggest you remove the springs, and use a scale and some weights to measure how many pounds it takes to compress the springs by a few inches. Divide the pounds by inches and you have the spring rate in inch-pounds...

--DD