we jacked the car up today to look at some break trouble I was having and this is what I found. First image is from the driver's side rear and second is from the passenger rear. It's ripping the sheetmetal off.
I wondered about the metal with the rear bar brackets in the past when I saw installs. I guess your pics tell the story. Need some re-enforcement in the rails. Good reason to do those visual checks on these oldies once in a while. Glad you caught it.
Did the bolts elongate the holes? or did you miss drill the first set and had to re-drill em during your install. Miss drilling the holes would explain the tears in the rails. Inadvertant weakening of the structure. I would remove the mounts and bolts from the rails(repair the rails/weld the bolt holes shut) and weld a steel plate to the rail in the mount location and wrap it around the rails (U shape basically) and re-drill,re-mount. I should think 3/32nds thick steel plate should do it. Go 1/8th inch If you want the extra rigidity. Hard launches and a less than sufficient mount fixture/mount point are most likely the culprit. Good luck Mo...
Pete, just for safety sake, while we were doing the front end, thought I would check mine out, not as bad as the pics but it's starting. Had the mechanic that helped me with the front end put a tack weld on the bracket that bolts to the frame, hope it holds but i will sure keep a eye on this, well pete you ready for a modification? Michael
went to a metal shop today (I LOVE metal shops). I got a 2x4' 1/8" hot rolled steel (they didn't have cold rolled ((not that I know the difference but Bryant said to get cold rolled))). Cost me $33. We wanted to originally get the metal cut and bent but our fabricator friend said just to cut 2" long strips and then cut those into section and weld them into a U-shape.
here is what the thin metal looks like with the bracket removed Here is what the sway bar brackets look like on top of the brackets we made. We used these nuts and bolts to make the installation. We used the drill press to put the holes into the brackets. We then put these nuts on the back and welded them up. One problem was that I broke the nuts when I tried to remove them (should have waited til they cooled off). So it got complicated, we had to tap one of the holes and chase the other ones. But we got it done, probably an extra 1-3 hours of work. We installed the brackets and marked the areas and grinded them down. One point I gotta make, I didn't grind the area off well enough so it didn't weld up well on the first side. I did a better job on the other side. Also, hard running a straight weld, much easier doing little spot welds. I should mention we opened up the holes a little in the frame rail so we could fit the bracket better. So it turned out wonderful. Of course the weld quality is sub-par but I think it'll hold.
I love the sway bars. It feels tighter in the turns now that I don't have as much movement in the metal. Also got rid of the squeeking.
I just had to do very similar thing to mine at the beginning of this week. Mine too was tearing through the bottom of my frame rails. I have a sway bar for a 69 mustang though I believe. I didn't run my new reinforcement plates up the side though, just along the bottom about a total of 7 inches with the holes drilled through. I think mine was tearing due to my end links being too short. So I got ones that were 2 inches longer with the spacer in the middle. Mine attaches to the rear instead of up front like yours. Same thing, different direction though. Feels great driving it now!
I don't think it's the metal that's the problem, it's the u-bolt and how it distributes the pressure. I plan on adding a rear bar but figured on re engineering the mount just for this reason.
Looks strong... this is a problem that has been documented here before. Nice solution. Where did you get the nuts from?
