Thread: Bilstein Coilovers

Well....ordering parts for my rear coil overs. After reviewing the club GP thread on making coil overs i think i have found a suitable replacement sway bar end link from Moog. Its shorter and comes out to right at 6.5 inches long. And using the angle iron method to make a new bracket for the sway bar end links. Will start work on the stock bilestine struts in a couple days.

Rear coil over shopping list

http://m.summitracing.com/parts/hal-12-325
http://www.a1racing.com/cok12470.aspx
http://www.a1racing.com/cok12460.aspx

So for the coil over sleeve. The o.d. Of the rear bilestine struts are 2" so i think i would need these
https://www.a1racing.com/cok12455.aspx

With that i.d. They have a 5" length and a 7". To short would be bad so im hoping 7" will work on rears to. If someone wants to take some measurements for me id appreciate it.

And i have plenty of angle iron to relocate the end link. So no worries there. Ill post the new end link i think should work instead of shortening a stock one

Edit: anyone wanna measure the stock length of the rear sway bar end link to

Can u explain a little more

It just allows for the sway bar to have more effect with less travel of suspension.


White line makes adjustable endlinks which would be ideal however you can also source two spherical rod ends and threaded rod to accomplish the same thing

So what are you saying you recommend? I will have to change the way the sway bars mount in the rear. They wont be able to connect to the top of the strut anymore with them being turned into coilovers

the intense racing fix was a piece of angle iron that bolted tot he strut foot where it joins the knuckle.
the top of the angle bar had a single hole to bolt the swaybar endlinks too

Well turns out that was exactly my plan guys. Hence the needing a slightly shorter sway bar

Originally Posted by matt5112

No, that's not at all what preload is. That's end link length and its effect on the angle of the sway bar relative to the link. In short, the link should be 90* from the bar.

Preload is to set bias towards left or right hand turns. On the street, you want zero preload.

I might be crazy, but I personally found that my car was less upset by bumps on one side of the vehicle with preload set with me in the car and half a tank of gas.

you're saying the same thing. If you're sitting in one side of the car and the vehicle is weighed down the suspension has compressed more on your side thus causing a unequal bias between left and right side on the sway bar. And ultimately the endlink on the opposite side side needs to compensation to handle the change.

for some reason I'm recalling the shorter and link was a part number from a Chrysler like an intrepid or a Stratus

Originally Posted by DirtDog

Well turns out that was exactly my plan guys. Hence the needing a slightly shorter sway bar

Wait why do you need a shorter sway bar is that what you are saying? You need to keep the same length swaybar... All you need it a bracket that mounts to the knuckle and then shorter end links to mount the sway bar to the bracket.

Like this right meow.

Stickied

Originally Posted by Alix0r

Wait why do you need a shorter sway bar is that what you are saying? You need to keep the same length swaybar... All you need it a bracket that mounts to the knuckle and then shorter end links to mount the sway bar to the bracket.

Like this right meow.

Meant shorter end links

Originally Posted by 98FordLovinVet

who made the brackets? DIY?

DIY dog

And yay another sticky

Originally Posted by 91parkave

you're saying the same thing. If you're sitting in one side of the car and the vehicle is weighed down the suspension has compressed more on your side thus causing a unequal bias between left and right side on the sway bar. And ultimately the endlink on the opposite side side needs to compensation to handle the change.

Sway bar preload, and maintaining mechanical advantage on the sway bar are two separate issues.

What I'm saying is, measure the length of sway bar you need to maintain the bar perpendicular to the end link while the car is on the ground. The point is, if you look at the formula for torque, forces applied at 90* to the object you are trying to rotate are the most efficient. If you apply a force at an angle greater or less than 90*, less of the applied force will translate into torque. Less torque, less resistance to wheel movement. Thus making your sway bar less effective.

Then when the car is on level ground, loaded with it's regular load, you have someone adjust the end link until there is the least amount of tension on it. That is zero preload. You do that after having the car corner balanced though.

Sway bar preload is the bias you are describing due to different loads on each side of the car. Ultimately, you should have that removed via corner balancing so it should be a non-issue granted the car isn't tweaked, your end links are the exact same length etc. So it's a little bit of extra time spent by your corner balancing guy, but you're already paying for it anyways.

All of this stuff is part of proper setup with high spring rate cars with adjustable suspension. But if you're not having the car corner balanced, forget about all of this.

Pretty much comes down to do you want good, or good enough.

Who does corner balancing is my question? And i guess looking into adjustable end links would be best

Originally Posted by Alix0r

Wait why do you need a shorter sway bar is that what you are saying? You need to keep the same length swaybar... All you need it a bracket that mounts to the knuckle and then shorter end links to mount the sway bar to the bracket.

Like this right meow.

Obviously we know the bracket is from HT but what about the endlinks? assuming they're adjustable spill the beans on where it was purchased from.

Red the brackets and endlinks are from HT and yes the endlinks are adjustable