ROG100

Talked with Dave & Jeannie and we are looking into it.
I hope we did not put them on upside down or something.

SeanR

Stock width is 44" Rog.

AO

What do you mean by, "correct" offset? Do you mean same as stock? We all know the offset determins how far in/out the wheel is. We also know there's a lot of there's a lot of wiggle room when we say "correct." An 8" wheel with a 50ET will fine. So will the same wheels with a 57ET.

What are the offsets on the 9" Kinesis wheels? I think they are around 60mm, right?

Obviously there appears to be some dimensional difference in the new vs. old swaybars as yours hits, and Jim's doesn't.

I'm sure you guys will figure it out.

auzivision

Adding a few photo's to help the experts picture the problem. Note the drop link angle...

See how Dave's are Bowlegged:


And Roger's are Knock-kneed:



I know one of these is with sprung weight and the other is unsprung, but I can't imagine the drop links would go from bow legged to knock-kneed based on weight. Could the ride height be too low or the drops links adjusted too stubby?

Maybe is just me or the camera angle, but the sway bar also appears to be really close to the ground.


Shouldn't the lowest part of the sway bar be about where it connects to the to the drop link?

ROG100

My Kinesis were made to the correct offset for my car as were Jim's.
I know Jim will remember but I do not. DR had my wheels made for me to the exact offset.

AO

Kurt your pics just reminded me that I'm still using the stock front droplinks - so that may have something to do with why mine fit well.

SeanR

Those pictures are after the car had settled and had the alignment done. Bad pics I know. Wheel was a full lock to the right.

Jim M.

Front Kenesis 9x18" wheels for both Roger and I are 7-9/16" backspacing, can't remember what that is in offset. These are the backspacing (offsets) specified by Dave. Again my DR swaybars fit perfectly with no rubbing.

Just got off the phone with Chuck Schreiber, he is going to mesure the sway bar width at the drop link end. Also asked Chuck to PM Chuck Zacman and measure his bar (he has not installed his yet). Sean has reported the stock bar is 44" wide at this point and thinks the DR bar is 45+, which will cause the problem your having. Chuck's front wheels are 8" so he may not have a problem now.

Auzivision what wheels are you running in the front? From your pics it looks like your bar is rubbing on the tire, it also looks like you should be able to raise the end of the bar by shortening the drop links.

AO, I don't believe using the stock drop links will effect anything, except you have the rubber bushing flexing instead of the solid heim joint so your bar is less effective.

auzivision

These aren’t my wheels… these are Sean's photos of Roger’s install. I just copied them off Facebook and pasted them here so everyone could get a look at what's being discussed. Sorry for the confusion.

AO

On a 9" wheel, that equates to 81mm offset. That's got to be close to the limit of the offsets. I had estimated what the inboard limit was for my wheel calculator, and this exceeds it by almost a cm. Looks like maybe I need to update the calculator, because you were able to run those wheels with the stock swaybar.

But I think the point here is that anyone running the Carrera III, Turbo twists, cups, etc, shouldn't have an issue with the front bar.

You guys are at the extreme edge.

Yeah... yeah. Whatever you say Jim.

Sharks

Below is an email that I sent to both Jeannie and Dave on Aug 23rd after I installed my new sway bars. I never received a reply so I'm not sure what is to say, but the sway bars work great (at leaset at the track until I blew the engine).

***************

Dave, first of all thank you for the door prizes for Sharks in Hell at my cottage a couple weeks ago. We really need to get you and Jeannie up here one of these years.

I installed my sway bar set last weekend as I have a track DE tomorrow and want to play with the adjustments while there.

Before I installed the rear bar I put it up to the production bar and noticed two things:
1. The production bar is perpendicular to the mounting bolt in the body at the grommet locations and the new bar isn’t.
2. The new bar was longer (went further rearward in the car) than the production bar.

I had a hard time bolting up the new rear bar as the grommets were on an angle and I could not slide them to the body mount location very easily. After some persuasion and swearing I was able to get the bolts into the body. After hooking up the rest of the suspension I attached the drop links and when I lowered the car to the ground the bar contacted a bolt on the passenger side (see attached pic) and broke the plastic shield above the nut near the gas tank. Since I had such a hard time sliding the bar toward the passenger side (bar was not perpendicular to mounting hole) when I was trying to attach the body mounts I decided to just cut the furthest drop link hole off (figuring I would never use it anyway).

I took my car over to Andrew Olson’s place to do an alignment and he said that I should contact you to let you know about this. If you have any rear bars there you may want to check the area that the grommets attach to and the length of the drop link attachment points.

If you don’t understand the description above give me a call ....

******

hans14914

I have an first run rear bar on my car (which I really didnt have any problems with since I installed it when I dropped my trans for TT service), and have a new production bar in the box waiting to go on. If I can provide any helpful measurements from those bars, let me know.

Right now, I have an old Devek 32mm bar on the front, so waiting to swap the new 928SP bar on till I have the money to replace my tired upper A-arms. I havent notices any problems with the Devek bar, so if there are and dimensions from that which would be helpful, I am glad to get under there with a tape.

ROG100

Never heard back from DR so we worked on the issue a bit further.

The new bar is now 45" wide which adds about 1/2" to each side over the stock bar or the first iteration.
The bar was slightly off center about an 1/8" and we repositioned it better.
We set it so there was a .010" gap on the drivers side between the bar and the rim on full lock.
This still meant that the passenger side was jamming against the wheel on full lock.

As AO says 8" correct off set wheels will probably be OK but very close under certain conditions, however anything wider or the wrong offset is going to hit the sway bar.

The sway bars are awesome and the car handles great until full lock is used.
Any other way of making them fit??
Can they be bent inwards? Can they be ground down to clear?

AO

A little more negative camber might help...

Actually, now that I think about it your alignment "could" affect how well the bar fits. Roger, any idea how much room you need to clear? Depending on that answer, and your alignment specs, you migth be able to get it to fit without touching the wheels.

To me, it looks like the inside edge of your tires is a bit worn. Any chance you have too much toe out? This would effectively bring the tire in a bit closer to the swaybar on full lock. Adjusting to get the proper toe might help your fittment issues. Just a suggestion.

I certainly wouldn't want to grind the bar unless I had to, but if all you need is a 1/16" or so, I'd be grinding that **** today.

Otherwise, you might have to learn to drive without going full lock. Or you could upgrade to some Carrera III's. I'll trade you straight up.

toofast928

Did I miss something? When are bars going to be on sale?