Re: Type 44 rear sway bar (and some bitching)

[JShadzi@aol.com]

In a message dated 10/23/99 12:40:20 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
ekellock@juno.com writes:

<< I added a rear bar from ADDCO.  The car still understeered AND began to
 handle in
 a very non-linear manner, kind of like when the inside rear wheel of my
 '83 GTI
 would lift in the middle of a turn, except more abrupt.
 
 I still have that rear bar (uninstalled) if anyone wants further
 verification of this.
 
 Ed Kellock >>

    I had actually ordered that addco bar, and when I got it I put it back in 
the box and shipped it back.  That thing was puny and very poorly 
constructed.  I ended up using a 1" bar from a 4kq, with heim joint end 
links.  I wish you could have driven the car, because "non-linear" is the 
last thing I would have called the handling characteristic of that car.  It 
was totally predictable, zero body roll, and very neutral conserning 
over/understeer.  In fact, when pushed at the limit, I could get it into a 
very controlled four wheel slide.  That car hustled!  You can check out the 
rest of the car at: web.csuchico.edu/~javad   
    Just throwing a bar on the back of a car, without changing anything else, 
is not very well thought out however.  A suspension is a system, and each 
individual part will affect the synergy of all the components working 
together.  Every modification should take into consideration other areas of 
the suspension, then testing and evaluation until the desired goal is met.  I 
think experimentation is the best teacher.  If anyone out there wants to put 
a rear bar on, do it!  Evaluate it and continue to modify different areas of 
the suspension.  
    To simply write the list and dumbly say "uhh, should I do this or that" 
is not doing justice to what you [collective Listers] should be learning and 
experimenting about your own car.  It is a shame to let any self-proclaimed 
expert tell you what to do regarding your own car.  Sure, advice can be 
helpful, but some of you out there are trying to jump ahead of yourselves!  
Some of you are trying to redesign your rear suspensions, and dont even 
really know the function of a rear sway bar.  I suggest learning how to 
install one and learn its effect on your given application, and go from 
there.  Its all a learning process, do what it takes to learn and go from 
there!
Keep on tweeking,
Javad