Re: [T3] Purest Type 3 group? (kind of a rant) (sway bar tangent)

[Toby Erkson <air_cooled_nut@pobox.com>]

<x-flowed>The mounting point on the lower arm is the lower shock mount.  That is 
where my bar from JC Whitney mounts as well.  I can tell you from first 
hand experience that is a bad location.  I  sheared mine off on the left 
side (shock still stays on by itself).  Not only does that mount have to 
take the stress from a stock suspension standpoint, adding the sway bar 
introduces MORE stress to the mount (I seem to be the source of a lot of 
stress).  Also, after putting the L-bracket on the stud, there isn't 
much room left for the nut to hold it all down.  The stud pretty much 
sits flush with the nut and from everything I've read in my "Mechanical 
Engineering for VW Dummies" that is NOT a secure fastener -- there 
should be 3-4 threads of the stud beyond the nut.  I had to use Loc-Tite 
to keep the nuts on and even still it didn't always hold, which meant I 
also kept a couple spares in the car :-(

I say again, an after-market mount would be clamped to the lower arms 
like the stock T1 units.  Or someone would win a lottery and mill a 
larger bar to replace the stock unit ;-)

   Toby Erkson  --  air_cooled_nut@pobox.com
   '72 VW Squareback, '95 VW Jetta, '81 Gold Wing, '73 Porsche 914
   http://www.icbm.org/
   Portland, Oregon


>  
>
> > Did you realize that you already had a front
> > anti-roll bar? It's built in; it's 
> > the upper torsion bar. Beetle people assume that our
> > front ends are just as 
> > poorly engineered as theirs, but type 3s came with
> > this feature designed in.  
> >
> >
> > http://tinyurl.com/22m4k
> >
> > Adjustable, and non-adjustable for the T3...
> >    

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