sway bar

[madhatterpdc]

I'm gonna go ahead and throw in my two cents here.

My experience with sway bars (which, BTW is totally non-Opel to-date) is that the sway bar will not make the ride any harsher or bumpier while highway cruising (straightaways) and will cause the car the unsettle the opposite wheel in a bumpy, aggressive turn, making the ride feel a little more bumpy, but not any harsher or jarring than what the current spring/shock/bushings are offering.

That being said, the anti-roll effect that we are all so familar with enhances the cornering "confidence" two-fold. One is the enhanced traction that is being distributed back to the inside, unloaded tire. The second is from the driver's perception that they are not going to fall out of the car or the door handles are not going to scrape. There, now that I have effectively beat the sway-bar concept to death, I have one additional comment that hopefully restore some understanding in the context of our Opels.

And I think that Paul nailed it with a reference to the GT's poor front suspension design and why a front only sway bar installation will make such a dramatic improvement. Now if we could convince Rallybob to make another run of his glass front springs, and I were to take the time to do the proper modifications to minimize front suspension binding, plus an intermediate rear spring set, Koni adjustable shocks, and a pair of sway-bars (probably OGTS, I like the way they mount to the axle)...

[opeldean]

does anyone have instructions?

i just got mine from unlimited.

[houserc]

That looks like front end sway bars. Is that correct?

[nobody]

Do a search in the photo gallery for "frontsway", Kajungt has 2 really good pics of the way it mounts up. Hopefully a picture is worth a thousand words. I'm not sure how quiet I would have been. After that wait and no instructions. Oh well at least it arrived, good luck.

[opeldean]

ogts told me they have an instruction sheet...does anyone have it?..it might save me some time....i specifically ask "unlimited" to send me the instructions..they said they would..OOPS..

i got the sway bar after 6 1/2 weeks.i have 50 transactions on ebay
..both as a buyer and seller..unlimited is ranked last..so far.it is too bad..they look so nice on paper and on the web...maybe it is just an "oops"... and only a one time thing.

1) do i attach the end links first?then try to position the bar up?

2)i heard there is some sort of stock spacer to be removed from between the leafs?

3) chris can you send a photo of the "whole thing"?..

[flipper]

Bucky, there are two spacers between the suspension subframe and the body where the subframe bolts to it. the two flat pieces with the curved up circle replace those two spacers. put the bar with the spacers up there first, then line up the sway bar ends up to the lower control arms and drill the hole for the control arm mounts and then attach the long bolts with bushings. i will pm you with my phone # and i can explain it better by phone.

[opeldean]

no bolts in yet..nothing loosened.

i dont see any spacers..advise

ps:thanks for the phone call flipper

[opeldean]

spacer is not moving easily..advise

[opeldean]

jack was putting pressure on spacer..i released the jack...pressure is now ALL on jack stands..first spacer is out.

[opeldean]

installation w/o instructions continues..
flipper said..take wheels off.do this first..thank you flipper.

the bar fits in real nice...you can tell it is a stock design..

i will do the end links tomorrow night..i hope...

took me a couple of hours working 10 min then taking a 15 min break to talk to every kid in the neighborhood...

[opeldean]

hard to go too fast when things are flying around the interior...
all done

[ski-doug]

For what it's worth I bought both F&R bars from OGTS and lucked into a rear end that had factory mounts on it. When I put the rear end in I also put on the bar since it was so easy. I did not have time to put the front on for a couple weeks and my GT is a daily driver.

What happened to the handling with only the rear bar installed was quite interesting; but not too beneficial. Every time I pulled away from a stop and was turning, the car would still roll, only now as the outside rear spring compressed, the sway bar would unload the inside tire and it would spin. I had very hard time not squawking the tires even though they were 15 inch 50's.

Put the OGTS front bar on a few weeks later and the car became an entirely different animal. Now I'm at merge speed 1/4 of the way into the on ramps

[opeldean]

ski doug- 1)did you have the same problems of hole alignment on the main bar?

2)how tight should the end links be..seems like there is latitude in how much you CAN compress the red poly bushings

[Washout]

Just as a heads up, I talked to ADDCO this morning and they still have the front and rear sway bars on sale. The front is 99.99 and the rear is 135.00 before shipping. The number there is 866-201-7599.

[ski-doug]

Bucky,

The first time I tried to mount the bar, I was at the shop and thought I could throw it in an a hour or so. The drivers side mount gave me so much of a fit that I gave up and took it off so I could drive the car home.

The next time I had a lot more time and with leverage in the right places and more pre thought I was able to put it in. I did have a different problem in that when I connected the final end links on the drivers side (the car was up in the air on a four post ramp lift so all four wheels were loaded) I had to pull down hard on the bar in order to get the nut on and then as I tightened the bolt to compress the poly spacers the drivers side came down even further. Now when I look at the car from the front it looks lopsided. It still drives great but I am afraid it might have been in a wreck and twisted something.

Then after thinking a lot about it I was thinking that I should rebuild the frount end and check everything while it was out and if needed ad spacers so the suspension is relaxed with the ends tightend down.

I had already bought the lowering spring and all the poly bushings. I had already done the poly in the rear and it was dramatic how much it had changed the handeling so I figured the front was next.

Two weeks ago the car developed alot of play in the steering and so I broke down and dropped the front end.

So in the end I am in the same boat, looking for my instructions so I will know how far down to tighten the end links.

[ski-doug]

This is what happens when OGTS gets your credit card on file.

When I pulled it apart I found a twisted upper control arm (luckily I had a second from another car) one bad ball joint and some not too tight tie rod ends. So the list of new parts from OGTS goes as follows.

1 inch lowering spring
2 poly spring bushings
2 lower ball joints
4 poly lower A arm bushings
4 Poly upper A arm bushings
2 upper balljoint poly boots
2 outer tie rod ends
2 inner tie rod ends
2 rubber steering rack boots
rubber pinion shaft boot
rubber steering shaft to firewall boot
2 rubber steering box mounts
2 stainless steel flex brake lines
2 Brembo cross drilled and cad plated rotors
EBC green stuff brake pads
4 rubber bump stops
2 inner wheel bearings
2 outer wheel bearings
2 dust caps

Everything else was bead blasted, primered and repainted.

Now if I can just get to drive it before the wife sees the credit card bill

[ski-doug]

And I almost forgot

4 new KYB shocks

[ski-doug]

Oh Yeah one more thing.

After ordering all the parts I told Gil about the steering play and he knew exactly what the problem was. It seems that while dropping the dash six or seven times working on the radio/ alarm/ dash lights/etc., the rubber steering coupler inside the steering collum had given way so add a new steering coupler to the list of parts.

[Washout]

Great looking front end ski-doug, I like the brake setup. I usually soften the blow of such an expense by talking about buying a Harley for a week or so, then I "decide" maybe I'll just spend a little money on the car and keep it instead. She seems to feel much better that way. Just kidding, my wife just shakes her head and keeps saying, "OK, but it's my turn next!"

[svopel]

Ski-doug ..

Nice looking set-up!

Did you need to grind-off the lip on the wheel hubs for the bigger calipers to fit?

[ski-doug]

No mods required, they are stock size. Plus I'm Running 15 inch wheels anyway.

I'll be putting it back in tonight.