Re: Type 44 rear away bar

[Eric_R_Kissell@email.whirlpool.com]

on Thu, 21 Oct 1999, Eric Fletcher <steadi@swbell.net> wrote:
[snip]
> The inside rear tire is already very lightly loaded, add a 
> bar and your not gaining anything.  The type 44's problem is 
> up at the front.  Not the rear. Leave the rear alone and fix 
> the problems at the front

I keep seeing this bit about a rear stabilizer bar not doing 
anything once the load is off of the inside rear tire. This 
does not seem like it can be true. 

Here is my thinking. The lightly loaded inside tire is no 
longer doing much, or even nothing at all if it is in the air, 
because it cannot transmit any side or traction forces to the 
ground.  But, since the stabilizer bar serves to connect the 
suspension components on the left and right sides through a 
torsional spring, the bar still increases the spring force 
acting through the loaded outside rear wheel even if the 
inside rear wheel is in the air. Unless it is mounted with a 
flexible link, the stabilizer bar will transmit spring force 
resulting from the motion up or down on either side of the car 
to the opposite side via the stiffness of the bar, thus adding 
spring force from one side of the car to the other. Is that 
not how a stabilizer bar, front or rear, actually works?

Now the true question is whether or not the amount of spring 
force added from the less compressed spring for the lightly 
loaded inside wheel is a significant addition compared to the 
magnitude of force from the compressed spring on the loaded 
wheel. 

Now I am not saying whether or not a rear bar will improve a 
Type 44, just that I cannot figure out why a rear stabilizer 
bar would not continue to add stiffness to the rear suspension 
regardless of whether or not the inside rear wheel gets lifted 
into the air due to chasis flex and roll. 

Can anyone explain any errors in my thinking about force 
transmission via a rear stabilizer bar from the spring on the 
lightly loaded inside wheel to the loaded outside wheel?

Gee, I think this is starting to sound like a torsen-esque 
post, so I will stop now before I feel compelled to call 
people names :-)

Eric R. Kissell
5000cstq, 1.8 bar