2422Graham

After searching around for a few hours I am having trouble trying to identify the exact role of adjustable drop links. I recently purchased a rear sway bar for my car with adjustable drop links and am not sure how exactly to use them. I have read they adjust "preload," and are used to corner balance the car by running different lengths per side, but what is the relation to their overall length in unison and not just the difference between the two? Is it possible to stiffen/loosen the sway bar by extending/shortening the length of the drop links? If not, then how should I set the drop links?

I understand that moving to a different mounting hole within the sway bar itself stiffens the bar, but I only have one mounting hole in the bar, so don't have this option.

roman944

I always thought that they were for sway bars with just one hole (like your's) and not for something like a Lindsey Racing 19mm sway bar which has like 5 diff. settings

Spidey944

The adj. drops alow you to "pre-load" the bar. Helps people who know what they are doing dial in the rear sway a bit better.

2BWise

Its nice when setting up a car to be able to remove a drop link, disconnecting the bar, and then when reattaching adjust the drop link so that there is no pre-load on the bar.

2422Graham

Right. I guess the answer I'm looking for is so I am one of those people that know what I'm doing...

eniac

The purpose is for adjusting side to side preload on a car to compensate for chassis twist or other factors during hard acceleration or braking.

M758

Actually you are 180 degrees wrong. The adjustable links allow you PREVENT pre-loading the sway bar. A good corner balance could result in a slighly different ride height on each side. This ride height imbalance often induced pre-load in the sway bar. Thus when you turn left the bar does different thing from turning right. Usally not that big of a deal on the street, but on a race car it can explain why a car can turn one way, but not the other.

The adjustable lengths allow you to ensure that with the car on flat level ground the sway bar is not tight. This means it works the same if turning left or right.

2422Graham

Interesting. When I was playing with them earlier, (making the adjustments with the car jacked up) I would keep the lengths the same each side, but adjust the links to max length and found a noticeable increase in oversteer. Doing the opposite, keeping the same length each side but making the links short as possible, the oversteer would go away, and now I have a slight bit of understeer, which led me to believe the length had some sort of affect on the stiffness of the bar.

I'll go run the car up on ramps and see if there is any tightness in the bar, but I guess beyond that the length of the link does not matter?