Under what circumstances would you preload your sway bars?

I think that is the question I want to ask...

 

Ummmmmmmm.................not that I can think of, but what the hell do I know?
How would you actually pre-load them anyway? Wouldn't you just be pre-loading everything else?

 

i think you preload adjustable sway bars. i could be wrong though.

 

Ok.. then I must be thinking of something else.. I'm drugged up on Nyquil and Excedrine right now...

I have a question about preloading and suspension... I just can't think right, right now.

 

Wouldn't adjustable endlinks allow you to preload?

I'm still quite unsure about endlinks though... so please forgive me if nothing in this thread makes sense.

 

The only preloading I know of is with lowering springs. There was a thread on that in another forum and it started a heated debate whether or not it was necessary to preload the springs. Safe to say, it got locked. lol

 

Don't think it was locked. Yes, you should oad the suspension(springs) before you tighten everything up, but never heard of it on sways.......but there's always the chance I'm wrong about that.......especially if you do in fact have adjustable sways or end links.

 

I know about the preloading on the springs. I did that with mine.

Alright.. my bad guys.. I searched for one of my old threads where I asked what the benefit of changing out endlinks were...
Eviltwinkie said adjustable endlinks were good to PREVENT preloading on the sway bars.

 

Just say "No to drugs".

No worries.....glad we got that straight

 

i have heard of it being done on sway bars before but i am not sure how it was performed

 

your ? is valid... you might have better luck asking it in the competition section...

beers

 

in an RX-8, never ...

 

or the answer can find you...

there you go..

beers

 

the problem is everybody calls loading the suspension before tightening the bolts pre-loading, drives me f'ing nuts

you aren't PRE loading anything, you're just loading it

 

I think the only context in which I've heard of preloading is with progressive rate springs where you compress them to get to the desired initial rate. Or it could just be the Mountain Dew Code Red talking..

TeamRX8, would you care to enlighten the rest of us?

 

haha...i was thinking the same thing.....thinking what the hell are those guys talking about pre loading suspension before tightening bolts.

it's just tighten bolts at normal position which would be when suspensions at ride hight.

i only know u need to have preload on springs which is why we need springs compresser when taking springs out or it will shoot out. that's because there are preload on the springs. that's what should be call preload.

never heard about sway bar with any preload.

 

You occasionally use it in circuit work on a sway bar where having the car turn better one way than the other is an acceptable compromise (to cope with the rotation of the circuit). Especially for oval type circuits.

 

Okay, okay, I give.
I fell into the calliing it pre-loading trap because everyone else was alling it that.
Of course I agree and know that it is merely loading and will not use the other term again. Jeez!

 

you can fine tune your corner weights with some adjustable endlinks

 

Yes! I just learned that today at Tripoint Engineering today...I was gonna get a corner balancing and they told me to get adjustable endlinks first, so that they can make sure there's no pre-loading of the sway bar with me sitting in the car...makes total sense...for those of us who have taken the sway bars off, you know that it's hard to get the endlink bolt out of the hole in the sway bar unless you move the wheel to the proper height where the sway bar is no longer being preloaded by the endlink (and the fact that you have the damn thing on a jack doesn't help the situation either).

So does anyone have suggestions for where I should get adjustable endlinks??

 

http://www.neverenoughauto.com/index...tegory_id=5727 free shipping for Whiteline adjustables (come with dust boots for the heim joint).

http://www.awrracing.com/pages/store.html for cheap heim joint adjustable endlinks.

http://www.powergridinc.com/swaybar.asp for another kind of adjustable endlink using resin ball joints instead of heim joints.


Agency Power also sells adjustables.

 

Thank you for the reply...which one is the super uber awesome one of those three?

I really don't want any issues with the heim joints if I hit a pothole or something.

Thanks,
Fil

 

^
After much reading, I went with the Whiteline set. Seems like a quality set. Haven't read any reports about clunking and noise, plus they have rubber grommets which protect the joint from grime.

I have read reports of fitment issues (at the rear) and clunking (due to low quality heim joints) with the AWR links.

The powergridinc links are an X factor. They could be phenomenal, but they are not popular on this forum. I've read decent reviews about them at the 350Z and Mini forums. The ball joint is insulated by a rubber boot and protected from the elements.

 

i think i would go with the Agency Power links. only the fronts are adjustable though. the rears are solid.

 

i didn't read the whole long thread.
but to load/preload an adjustable sway bar... it wouldn't differ too much from as when you load the suspension when installing springs.
one side of the sway bar is different stiff setting from the other... so to accomplish this, one side would have to be loaded more( perhaps with the help of a floor jack) and adjusting the endlink to the stiffer location.

OR... it can be installed vice-versa. when one side is jacked up, that side does "sag" does it not? so you can adjust the end-link to the softer setting if the job is doen reversed.

OP: is this the question you had in mind concering pre-loads, and sway bar settings?
the only benefit i see in having unequal sway bar setting would be to counter the weight or transitional weight transfers in a particular track with more left/right turns...

sure if someone who competes heavily in the competition section sees this, they can chime in with some tips... or more helpful info.