At 09:57 PM 6/3/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Armand,
> I have a 1" bar on my Tiger II 351C. Using the original brackets I
>wrapped
>a section of radiator hose around the bar as the "bushing". It is very
hard to
>mount the bar as the "bushings" have to be compressed before the bolts
>will line up. The bar eventually caused the mounting slots in the lower A
>frame to fail. I re-welded with re-enforcement a couple of times. The inner
>slot was the one that failed each time. I finally solved the problem by
using
>only the outer mounting bracket on the A arm. At the same time I built two
>brackets ( from 6 used disk brake pads) and welded them to the front of the
>cross member. Using regular large sway bar clamps and big rubber bushings
>from a Dodge truck I supported the center streight portion of the sway bar
>1/2" from the front lip of the cross member. This setup has not failed
>since I did the mod 3 to 4 years ago.
I built a similiar system several years ago for the same reason,
failure of the A-Arm slots. I immediately noticed a reduction in the
effective stiffness and kicked myself in the but after giving it more
thought. By using only the outer attachment points, the effective leverage
arm normally located between the stock mounts is moved to the outside
mount. This requires a much larger diameter bar to obtain the same
stiffness. This was a simple moment arm problem. I just had to build it
to see it. The best solutions I've seen created more substantial mounts at
the A-Arm which don't depend on the simple slots in the lower arms, or
alternatively the typical connecting rod attachments with urethane
bushings. Still tough to beat the original stock design compromises.
Tom Hall
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