Check your front sway bar!!!!!!

I'm not sure if I'm behind the learning curve here but if you've got a SPF GT PLEASE check your sway bar end links.

Long story short, my Dad and I were doing some suspension work to my GT and had taken off the left front coilover. When we started to put it back together my Dad noticed that the swaybar link was drooping. We both agreed that neither I or he had loosened the tension bolt so we took it off. We discovered that the splines inside were stripped. The link was not deep enough nor was there enough meat for the splines on the end of the sway bar to grab onto it. To top it off we agreed that the tension bolt was not large enough to properly grab the swaybar. A quick call to Dennis, the SPF guru,confirmed the problem as a small issue with the design. His solution was to weld the sway bar to the link and we agree. Dennis also mentioned that all of his cars had gone through the mod as a standard courtesy to his customers. Kudos to Dennis.......

So in short, if you've had your car done by Dennis have no worry. If you've set up your own car or had another vendor set it up take a little time and check your sway bar links. My car has a little over 1000 miles on it and I don't know when it failed.

Rich.

P.S. Mike Drew touched on this in another thread but I believe we should all take a little time to check based on the capability of our cars and the consequence of failure.

Thanks for the heads up on this. After my first track day I noticed this too and have since welded the links.

If you are welding the links, how are you taking preload out the bar? Can the links be replaced with longer ones are is there room restriction? I'm just getting started on mine so thanks for the head's up.

Disconnect the vertical rod end links, weld the bar section horizontal arms, and adjust the rod end lengths for no preload.

Mike Trusty noticed this a while back, last weekend I had my car on the lift in Little Rock and mine are stripped, I think they must have put them in just for looks as I don't see how that fine spline shaft could have ever held up. I am going to drill and pin mine so I can get it out of the car if I need to. SPF should be embarrassed on this one.

The problem seems to be with the links, not the bar itself. Does an original repro parts supplier, i.e. Safir or Cushman, make better sway bar end links that would work with the stock SPF front bar?

Welding the thing together is a good solution only if you can get the thing out of the car for servicee. If not, what do you do when your bushings or shot, or whatever?

I noticed that the *rear* sway bar was all screwed up on Jack's car last weekend. The vertical links which attach the end of the sway bar to the suspension were miles too short; the bar should be more or less horizontal at rest, and his was at a 45-degree angle.

Dunno what's going on there? SPF did an amazing job copying the most intricate and complex portions of the car, and then dropped the ball on components that are only slightly more complex than a paving stone....:huh:

Mike,
Jack's idea of pining the links may be better than welding (if the roll pins don't break). The entire bar assembly can be unbolted from the chassis, but as you say how do you change bushings with welded links? Concerning the rear sway bar you are right too. The vertical link is so short that you really don't have much adjustment to stiffen the bar.

Guys,

If this only happened once or twice, I'd be inclined to say it's within the realm of warranty related issues, but there seems to be several who've come across the same challenge' with the design.

My first thought is 'why welding?' Has SPF washed their hands of the sitaution?

T.