Need some swaying

[EA911]

Hello - I wanted to get your opinion on sway bars for my 69T. Since my car was european delivered it did not come with any sway bars and I want to install them. Question is should I just install the front 15mm bar only or both front and rear? I'm not going to track the car or autocross just cruise and spirited driving.

I will be using wider 7" rims +23 offset and 205/60/15 tires and lower the car just a tad.

Thanks in advance.

[304065]

First, 7" on a narrow body with ET23 offset could be hard to fit-- there's a reason the 911R wheels are ET49 (with a 10mm spacer, a 39mm offset- remember that offset is the distance between the hub face and the wheel centerline, so spacing the wheel OUT moves the centerline OUT, closer to the hub, but since it's a negative offset you sum the -49 with +10 for 39)

Second, why not try it in AX like it is? While a proper ARB can be a big help to handling, at very low AX speeds you might experiment to see if you like the handling. A lot of AX guys disconnect the rear bar and soften up the front to create better TTO-- not something you want to do on a track.

Anyway, the first step in suspension mods should be a torsion bar change, coupled with revalved shocks to match-- this will limit roll more than the ARB will. Then you can move up in ARB sizes to match.

If you want stock appearing the factory bar is OK, but it's not adjustable for suspension preload, which means it can bind the front suspension in its range of motion, which does weird things to the spring rate. Adjustable drop links like the weltmeister links allow you to dial out the preload, and you only need one even though they come in pairs.

The best ARBs are made IMHO by Smart Racing, not cheap but excellent engineering, kinematics and mounting hardware. I use a 31mm bar on the front but you can probably get by with a 19mm for DE and track work. Anything smaller is a "factory" bar and probably not worth the effort to remove the fuel tank and drill the holes.

Good luck!

[RSTarga]

if you are going for wider tires you need bars front and rear from a 72 or 73 at least front and rear.

[tfiv]

I really like the way a bone stock early 911 equipped with Konis, 15mm bars, and stock size tires drives on the street. If you have never driven a good tight car with this factory setup, find someone that has one (it's hard). I think you'll be surprised how capable and comfortable the car is. It's a worthy starting point anyway.

[EA911]

Thanks for the suggestions.

304065: My intention for this car is to drive it in the street only, no track or AX. I already have a track car for that department. I'm trying to do the minimum to gain a little stability and I don't have enough experience setting up a rear wheel, rear weight bias car. I agree that some of the fundamentals of suspension setup applies no matter what car it is - that said I may take the advice of TFIV and setup the car as stock so I have a good baseline to start from and upgrade if need be. I haven't driven the car enough and have a feeling and I may be jumping in too fast.

[kenikh]

Stock sways, shocks and bars are fine for even spirited street driving. My 65 has stock suspension with fixed shocks and no rear bar and I can flog it senseless. I had no issues keeping up with a 3 liter car that had bigger ARBs and t-bars on a trip through some tight twisties. I'd add a 15mm rear sway for cornering stability, try it out and see if that does it for you.

[EA911]

^ Thanks for the info. I've located a stock set of bars and I have a friend who can weld the mounting brackets for the rear but I will need the trailing arms with the ball joints to make it work. I've also got info on an aftermarket rear bar that does not need brackets or ball joints - H1H brand? Uses clamps and such. Might be a good alternative.

[72tii]

You can have your friend weld on the ball sockets to your existing trailing arms. They are available from Stoddard on this page- it's part number 7.

[304065]

Stay AWAY from that aftermarket stuff made by the company whose name is "world champion" in German.

Example: their rear sway bar mounts to the eccentric with a freaking SAE bolt! Tons of metric hardware and they use SAE! I called them, enraged, the guy said, "we wanted to make it easier for people to find the bolts locally so we made the threads SAE." Bloody infuriating.

The Smartracing rear bar mounts to the trailing arm, you don't need a ball stud. Check out their catalog for ideas.

[kenikh]

Stay AWAY from that aftermarket stuff made by the company whose name is "world champion" in German.

Example: their rear sway bar mounts to the eccentric with a freaking SAE bolt! Tons of metric hardware and they use SAE! I called them, enraged, the guy said, "we wanted to make it easier for people to find the bolts locally so we made the threads SAE." Bloody infuriating.

The Smartracing rear bar mounts to the trailing arm, you don't need a ball stud. Check out their catalog for ideas.

Ditto - I went the trouble of using their sways, but then had to basically get all new hardware to mount their stuff. I used Tarret hardware up front and a Frankenstein set up of factory parts for the rear on my 'S'.