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Old 08-23-2013, 09:49 AM
  #5817  
Bhodi11
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Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 120
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Originally Posted by TryHard
On the front, I line the end of the bar up with the end of the ball joint. On the rear, I run the out-board pick-up (use a ball joint in the front hole of the arm, and then make up a link to connect to the roll-bar), which allows me to use the full length of the bar.
If your using the kit setup, you'll just want to make the link vertical, and measure how much bar is sticking out, then match the two sides.

Valk means to not lock down the two set screws on the bulkheads, as clamping these down will mean the bar can't drop freely.

I have a fairly lengthy process to setup roll-bars, but once done, it's pretty much fit and forget... This is all assuming that the bar you have isn't badly tweaked to start with, and sits flat on the table. A small tweak(0.5-1mm of rock) isn't a big issue, IMO, and I've never had much success trying to bend bars back, so tend to ignore that and make sure they are setup right on the car.
Also, this assumes that there is no binding elswhere, and all the arms are free to move, with no binding.

1) Mount the bar in the car, but without the ends connected. For the 1.4mm bars, use the 1.6mm holders (the 1.4mm ones are too snug, IMO). Then measure to make sure that the bar is mounted centrally in the car. You can do this off the bends in the bar to the bulkheads. Once it's central, lock down the centre retainer, so the bar can't move side to side. Check the movement is still free. You might need to cant the grub screw of the retainer so it points towards the middle of the car, as the collar can rub a little on the diff pulleys.

2) Next up, adjust the bulkhead set screws. Lifting and dropping the bar, slowly tighten down each screw until it doesn't drop under it's own weight, then back the screw off a little. When set right, there should be a small amount of play, but the bar should move freely.

3) Now attach the links to the arms. Make sure as a starting point they are the same length, and as mentioned above, that the balls attach to the same point on the bar (same amount of length either side is poking out).

4) Now comes the tricky part, which is setting up the bar to make sure it acts equal side to side. If you've followed all the above, it should be pretty darn close, but even so most still need a bit of setting up.
I use the "tap" technique to setup the bars. Basically, have the whole suspension built up, but remove the shocks. Now put a droop value on the end of the car you want to setup. I tend to use a lower gauge number than I would on track, more for ease of setting up (for example, I tend to run 5 droop on the rear of my car. For setting up the bars, I'll put this to 4).
Now slowly lift one side of the suspension, and make a note of when the other side lifts. I use a ride height gauge, pushed under the outer hinge pin point, and gently "tap" the opposite side whilst going to a higher number on the rh gauge. If the bar hasn't lifted, it won't tap, but when it does, you'll know. Make a note of the number that the bar lifted on, then repeat for the other side.
The key point is to get both sides lifting at the same time. If they are out, then you need to adjust the roll bar links to make them lift at the same measurement.
If the left hand-side lifts off at 7mm, but the right lifts off at 9mm, then you need to adjust the links. In that example, you either want to lengthen the left roll bar link, or shorten the right roll bar link.
One of the nice things about the snake, is that it's pretty easy to adjust the links by using a 2mm driver in the pivot balls in the arms, but you will have to play a little with the amount of adjustment to get it right.

Once you've got it right, go back through and check that all the arms are still free, and your good to go.

HiH
Ed
I just wanted to report back this completely resolved my issue. Once I went back through all the rod ends to make sure they were completely free and used your recommendations on the sway bar setup Ta-da!!! car runs awesome. Thanks again!
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