My reply to you was short, giving a curt tone, which wasn't intentional.
I agree, it's pretty much fool proof when installing a sway bar, though I've
seen them boogered up in some interesting ways, including my attempts years ago
with an old Audi Fox I once had as a much younger, and more foolish, lad.
Note, no matter how much electrical tape you use, it just will not hold it onto
the a-arm. :-) My attempts at doubling up a swaybar on the front of my old
Beetle using hose clamps and some blocks of wood worked much better.
A sway bar, unless it's binding in its bushings, will not restrict the moving
of the entire rear end of the car up and down. You should be able to push on
the center of the rear bumper, and bounce the entire rear end up and down just
like before the bar was installed. If you can't, there's a bind somewhere, and
it almost has to be in the bushings. It can also be a matter of a poorly
engineered swaybar. The Spitfire rear end moves fore and aft as it goes up and
down. The pivot axis is a straight line drawn from the u-joint to the radius
rod mount on the body tub. If a sway bar was mounted with in such a matter
that it would not allow that necessary fore and aft motion, it would bind the
suspension. Mounting one without end links could do this, and I have seen them
engineered this way.
A properly engineered and mounted sway bar will give a harsher ride though.
Because bumps and dips in the road do not come to both sides of the car at the
same time. So while the suspenion action going straight over speed bumps
doesn't change with the sway bar, the suspension action does change going over
individual pot holes and bumps. You would also detect this by trying to bounce
the bumper from one corner of the car, instead of trying to bounce the entire
rear end of the car from the very center of the bumper.
At $50, you have my interest on this rear sway bar. I'm curious to see what I
can work for the rear suspension combining a true swing spring, sway bar and
camber compensator in various configurations. It may not work at all, and I
may end up waiting until I do the GT-6 rotoflex rear instead. But the swaybar
could still work for what I want. So if this is a swaybar for the wider square
tail Spitfires, I'd like to hear a little more about it, and yes, I very well
may buy it from you if you're truly willing to sell. It could compliment my
1-1/2" monsterious front sway bar. :-)
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