I agree with Alan. The Miatas with larger swaybars appear to be the
problem cars. Further inspection of my bar shows that red paint has been
chipped away from smacking the A-arm.
but, i, too, have adjustable end links. Not sure what will happen, but i'm
going to try and adjust them to their shortest height so they can be the
furthest distance away from the A-arm.
I'll know more soon. I could be all wet, too.
At 05:44 PM 8/26/99 -0500, Jim Hedderick wrote:
>I have the same divot on my 15/16 bar. Went to adjustable end links and
>never thought anything more about it. You could be right.
>
>Jim Hedderick
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Alan Dahl <adahl@eskimo.com>
>To: autox@autox.team.net <autox@autox.team.net>
>Date: Thursday, August 26, 1999 2:42 AM
>Subject: Big Swaybar Woes, cause found?
>
>
>>At 08:56 AM 8/25/99 -0500, you wrote:
>>>Some of you Miata guys need to be raising hell with the factory to get
>this
>>>fixed. This car has now been in production for 10 or 11 years. It shouldnt
>be
>>>that hard to beef the front of this car.
>>
>>I think I may have figured out what is causing the brackets to break. I've
>>noticed that there have been few if no reports of broken brackets with the
>>OEM swaybar but several with larger bars. It has been assumed that this is
>>caused by the larger bar transferring more stress to the swaybar bracket
>>but if you stop and think about how a swaybar works you realize that the
>>stress should not be all that much more, certainly not enough to tear the
>>bracket.
>>
>>A hint was that several Miata owners report "clunks" from the front
>>suspension but no evidence of any loose items or damage can be found. I too
>>had this problem with the 1" bar on my Miata and started to look around for
>>the source of this clunk.
>>
>>Finally I noticed that the swaybar had a little divot in it where it had
>>appearantly come in contact with the lower suspension A-arm. It appears
>>that under extreme conditions the A-arm can move far enough to contact the
>>sway bar. When this happens I suspect that the entire weight of that corner
>>of the car (or at least a large percentage of it) is momentarily
>>transferred from the spring to the swaybar. If this happens enough times
>>with enough severity the swaybar brackets are bound to break. I suspect
>>that with the smaller stock bar there is little or no contact at full
>>deflection but as soon as you increase the swaybar size you start to get
>>contact.
>>
>>I could be all wet here with my analysis and I would be glad to hear from
>>people what their opinions are on my theory but IMHO this is a likely
>>expanation for the broken brackets.
>>
>>What do you think?
>>
>>- Alan Dahl
>>----------
>> ___ ____ Alan Dahl | home: adahl@eskimo.com
>> /_ / / / Federal Way, WA, USA | work:
>Alan.Dahl@PSS.boeing.com
>>/ / _/__/ ----------------
>http://www.eskimo.com/~adahl -------------
>>
>
>
>
dan pedroza
the M road
http://www.mroad.com
mailto:dan@mroad.com
tel : (512) 9 9 0 - 8 2 1 1
fax : (603) 6 9 7 - 6 3 3 6
solo dos bs 99 <><
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