I spent a while last night thinking of the same thing and was going to ask for a measurement from a stationary point on the spindle, Ie the shield mount hole to center of tie rod or chassis where the rack pokes through. or something! anything! please
Looks like John F solved our issues. Adding weight (sitting on the front) to the suspension produced the proper clearance and then adjusting the steering angle, corrected the problem of the tie rods hitting the backing plate. Without the engine, seats, spare tire, radiator..... the car doesn't seem to have enough weight for the suspension to properly level out. Thanks for all the help.
not a prob. thank you for posting here. As you move along your project there is a ton of info here if you get into a bind. There is a whole community at your disposal. Welcome to Ferrari ownership and Fchat
Great news, congrats!!! At the end we all learn something new from other's experience. Helpful chat to seek advice
If that's a 308 it looks like a custom sway bar and heim joints. If you had the standard sway bar and dog bones it looks like it would hit. Is that sway bar system all custom? It looks much more beefy that stock.
Image Unavailable, Please Login Yes it is all custom and you’re right about the heim joint with a 25mm (1”)adjustable sway bar.
Since the original problem seems to be solved, I allow myself a bit of off-topic: Since our cars are prone to understeer from factory; doesn't this thicker front sway bar worsen it? What do you have on the rear? BTW; I would like a spacer of a proper size better, than a stack of washers. Best from Germany Martin
Looks like the saner bar setup to me. The stack of washers and the Heim joint was the standard saner solution. I had the same setup and found it way too stiff. On the roads around me it acted like a live axle at the front and on some mountain roads near me it was undrivable. The rear bar was the same diameter, or at least close. I am now running 100% stock bars and it handles way better even though there is roll. I still have the saner bars if anyone wants to buy them... probably not after that description but your mileage might vary Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
No it does not worsen the it at all because of the less body roll. For the rear, I have 22mm also with heim joint.
Since stiffness of the swaybar affects not only body roll, but also under- or oversteer, I would be interested, what a thicker rear sway bar and stock front would do regarding understeer. Is there someone, who has such a setup? Mike, I'm almost sure, that your car doesn't understeer more, since you went bigger on the rear too. So it does just reduce body roll, but does nothing more regarding handling, except a stiffer ride ? Best from Germany Martin
Martin, it doesn’t really stiffen the ride because I still have the original Koni shocks and springs, the big difference is the handling, it almost handles and corners like go kart. I’ve learned about using this size swaybars from the people who tracks their 308 with great results for many years and also uses it on the street, but of course having a set of wider tires like I have, helps too. Having stiffer swaybars doesn’t really do anything if you are just going straight but as I said it does a lot when cornering or turning.
Maybe your bar was better than mine but mine was way too stiff for the oem springs. In that situation I f you are going straight and one wheel hits a bump, too stiff a rollbar compared to the rest of the suspension certainly has negative effects. I could feel the front wheels skipping of irregularities instead of absorbing them. At the end of the day you loose independence in the suspension. I did consider keeping the saner bar at the back and going stock at the front to neutralize the handling (and may still do that in the future) but I’m pretty happy with stock roll bars but with slightly stiffer springs. I do trail brake into corners though and if I do that the car rotates nicely. I’m on modern 16” summer sport tires which probably changes things as well since there’s not much compliance there. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
David, tell me more. My car's suspension is stock with 16" wheels and when I tried tail braking the first time I slid into the oncoming traffic lane in the middle of a 180 degrees turn and almost wrecked my car I owned for four weeks back then. Never dared to repeat it the next twenty years. Seems I have no racing driver talent. Have to admit, I'm biased and perhaps overly cautious, because I totalled dad's car on an icy road ten days after I got my driver's license Something you won't forget. Best from Germany Martin
