New ADDCO sway bars. Oh, Yeah!

The third gen front bar showed up today, I will fit it this weekend and find out what needs to be done for usage with factory shocks . Probably just bend the flanges out some bit.


To recap, the second gen bar, which I have on now, fits with QA1s, but it is tight, the third gen bar eliminates the tightness with QA1s and should have fit the stock shocks, but evidently didn't without further modification.



Doug

 

So for those of us that have already received bars do we need to send them back?

 

Your rear bar will fit fine, if you have aftermarket front shocks, the front bar will fit fine. If you have stock front shocks, the front bar probably won't fit.

Doug

 

Yes I have stock shocks.

 

Yes I have stock shocks.

 

I spoke with them upon receiving mine and asked permission to have Paul alter them to fit which he has but I have lost adjustment holes. They told us to go ahead and they would do whatever corrections needed to be done to make this right. So we are awaiting Doug's measurements to be sent to them since it was he who they sent the test bars too. They told me that was all they are waiting for.

 

Thanks Doug.

I said I wouldn't start without both bars, but I went ahead and installed my rear bar last weekend (I don't have a front bar yet). The rear was an easy install and fit quite nicely. The relative size of the bar compared to the old one makes me believe the increase in roll stiffness will be substantial. All this has me chomping at the bit to get the new front bar. I really believe the improvement will be as some have claimed, night and day.

--Woody

 

Doug, that steering wheel movement isn't a direct result of the anti-roll bar uprate, it is bump steer. The increase in instantaneous wheel rate, and therefore tyre vertical load peaks, is caused by the stiffer bar, thus making the bump steer more pronounced. Cure the bump steer and it will all go away.

BTW we can supply anti-roll bars custom built for any Ferrari, our top of the range ones have adjustable blades to fine tune the cars balance.

 

I doubt 3/8" variations in road height due to tar sealant applications on asphalt cracks will cause classic bump steer, plus, "curing" bump steer, is a matter of redesigning the geometry of the entire front end. That said, my inner tie rods are looser than they should be and could probably be replaced and the rack rebuilt.

Longacre Racing Online -- Tech Article "Bump Steer "

As to new bar fitting, I have been slammed with work that pays the bills and was unable to fit the new bar last weekend, it is on this weekends project list.

Doug

 

Well, the replacement front bar that ADDCO sent me is the EXACT same out side width as the bar it was supposed to replace, it is the original 40.87" wide bar, not even the 42" wide bar that was sent to Newman.

I am sort of pissed about this, after taking my car apart again to find it is the same damn thing. I guess I should have measured it before i took the old bar off.

Doug

 

Much appreciated, Doug. I was eagerly awaiting your trial fit, and perhaps equally disappointed. Some weeks back I installed the rear bar to check fit, and so I could contribute with pics or measurements if adjustments were needed. Fortunately it fit fine, but my car is out of service until Addco can get the front one right.

--Woody

 

I got out my oxy/acetylene torch and tweaked the bar they sent me, so it was about 42" wide, that gave me enough room to move the bar around to determine what would fit and what wouldn't, and i e-mailed that info to ADDCO yesterday.

I also told them that they would have to send that trial bar to someone that has factory shocks for a final verification fit.

Widening the bar to fit factory shocks (without question), puts the bar directly under the tie rod ends, but with a previous modification, it looks like the bar will clear the tie rod ends by about 1/4" at full wheel lock.

Doug

Doug

 

They can send it to me. My car is at Wade's shop and I'm in no hurry.

 

Get in touch with Matt who started this project for that.

Thanks,
Doug

 

Can you put me in touch with him?

 

He's replied several times in this thread, Matt in Ca, I think.

Doug

 

PMing you right now

 

Update. I figured that approaching this from as many directions as possible might help get the situation for us a little better under control. In that all involved have done so with best of intentions things were not progressing fast enough for my project to get completed in time. So, I asked Paul to please speak with John at ADDCO. He spoke to him "at length" and new bars will be sent to Paul for final fit with stock shocks. I will keep you all posted as to the progress. Fingers crossed. Thanks again Matt and Doug for your efforts in getting this project underway in the first place. I might add that all who recieved the wrong front bars will get correct bars ultimately.

 

my friend from the US brought the set over last week. Due to a little lack of time i did the rear one only by now but i will try to make time to to the front one this weekend.

The rear one sizing looks spot on!

I will try to make some pictures and post them next week.

btw I did recieve the front bar with 2 adjustment holes only ( I thought it was planned originally to have 3). As i do not have stock shocks anyway I do not expect any fitting issues at the front.

 

Great news, Wade called John and left messages to use my car, but I guess he found another one.

 

If your front bar is 42+ inches wide (1067 MM), it should fit OK.

If they sent you a 40.87" wide bar, it may not.

Doug

 

oke tried to fit the front bar which in my case is 40.9. No way it will fit.

I think basically it is caused by two problems:
1: the outside to outside lenght of the bar is approx 3.5 inch to narrow. If the bar was 44.0 and even better 44.5 it would fit using two washers on each side.

with this lenght it would fit BUT only when I would cut off the second adjustment hole. So to make them perfect we should also reduce the overal leg lenght a bit.

So 2: the leg lenght must be reduced by 7/8 inch. (with this the two adjustment holes shift to the main bar by 7/8 inch)

I will contact my friend in the US to give ADDCO a call and provide them with this info

Just for all of you as info: I do not carry stock shocks but Alden Eagle ones

 

A 44" wide bar will clear all shocks, but it also places the bar in possible interference with the tie rod ends.

I "think", with the down leg bend that was put in after the first trial, it will clear the tie rod ends underneath, by about 1/4". That was the big problem with the first bar, the tie rods smacked the bar hard,and you couldn't go to full lock.

Not sure why they sent you a narrow bar,a s they did me, for a third bar. It was supposed to be about 42.4" wide

I took a torch and widened the flanges of the bar out to about 42.5", which allowed me to slide the bar side to side by another inch, and I came up with 44",and i THINK it will clear the tie rods, but no way to tell for sure until a true 44" wide bar is fitted.

Simply widening the middle of the bar 3", guarantees tire and wheel interference on 8" wide rims. What gets complex, is you can only bend that 1" bar, so much, in a certain length of space, and getting those extra bends in, the areas closest to the heim mounts, can be problematic. Angling the flanges outboard about 30 degrees, would help solve that issue. Or if the bar was welded up from three pieces, it would also solve the too many bends in too little space, problem.

Doug

 

I probably made the wrong impression, i do not want the long pièce 3 inch longer but i want just 3 inch more width on the mounting point.
But anyway what is the current status with the feedback to ADDCO?

 

Understood. I was just reinforcing that the easy solution, widening the middle, would restrict use to factory rims and tires.


I have given the feedback, I listed above, to ADDCO about two weeks ago.

Doug