Whiteline sway bar question

[GS guy]

I've seen how the Whiteline front bar attaches to the lower shock mount. This seems to be the only available attachment point for a bar like the Whiteline and similar PTP bar.
Question - is there any concern this will overwork the lower shock mount? The mounting has to be extended quite a ways away inward to clear the shock, putting even more leverage on the pin. Anyone had any experiences of this pin failing over time?
Taking a quick look at one of the lower trailing arms I noted there is a small blank boss on either side of the arm, down in the area near the ball joint. Maybe it's possible to drill and run a bolt through this boss, and attach the sway bar at that point? Seems like it might weaken the arm at a critical location, maybe not such a good idea. Only other sway bar option I can think of is running an internal bar like the Formula Vee guys. In conjunction with some good coil over shocks, maybe that would be a better approach?
Any thoughts? Jeff

[Sandeep]

I have a whiteline setup and have not noticed any weakening over time. I have not had any track days yet to really test the bars but that will change in 2005

The other option would be to enlarge the stock shock bolt one size up .. but you would need another bushing for the shock to fit the bolt.

Sandeep

[GS guy]

Thanks for the reply Sandeep. Not quite sure how one would go about enlarging the shock bolt. From the looks of my T-arm, it looks like the shock mount is basically a round pin with threads on one end - a separate piece that is probably press-fit into the arm forging, then pinned in place with a small anchor pin. You'd have to first remove this shock mounting pin (whatever that would entail), then bore the hole oversize in the T-arm and press fit a larger mount/pin. Not a minor task!
Think I'll just follow reports for a while and see how these hold up in stock form. Thanks, Jeff

[vwdave]

Hi guys,

I bought the adjustable whiteline front/rear bars about 2 years ago for my 68 1500. I still haven't got it on the road, but about 6 months ago i pulled the bars out of their boxes as i was working on the floorpan. To say i was disappointed would be an understatement. The front setup is poor and in my case there is not enough thread on the shock stud to even do it up; once the link bracked is on. Rear setup not much better with the funny angles that the s-links sit at- i noticed this also from pictures in tech articles- SANDEEP's ride.

I was not happy so i took heaps of digital photos and emailed them to technical manager at Whiteline. After a few emails he conceded that they did not appear to fit properly and we discussed options for fixing the problem. Unfortunately I am now in Norway and have not followed this up any further. I pretty much decided that i will just design and manufacture my own front/ rear sway bars and linkages. Not sure i will ever be happy with the quality of the bars i have.

GS Guy : Not a great idea to mount the linkage on the end of the lower shock stud- i did some calculations and found that it was not extremely safe considering the loading and fatigue factors.

SORRY for the story

Good Luck

Dave

[Mikey]

I am looking into buying a set of whiteline sway bars, and I'll probably narrow my beam 2" (1" per side) Would the front sway bar still fit on a 2" narrowed beam? From the looks of it in Sandeep's tech article it might work, but I was wanting an answer before I go a head and spend the money on the sway bar.

Thanks,

[zen]

i've been wondering about swaybar options for narrowed beams as well since my Ghia has a narrowed beam. and boy could it use a swaybar. not sure how tolerant some bars are to widths.

[Mikey]

Originally Posted by zen

i've been wondering about swaybar options for narrowed beams as well since my Ghia has a narrowed beam. and boy could it use a swaybar. not sure how tolerant some bars are to widths.

Aircooled.net has this swaybar here> Click here for Swaybar The price seems a little steep ($180), to say the least, but this is the only place I've seen them. The title on the part says "Adjustable T-1 1966 and up, 4 inch narrow..." but in the description it says it's for a 2" narrow bean.

Zen, how much is your Bean Narrowed?