After a brief conversation with Tom, the location of the sway bar was confirmed, and we built the mounts.
The kit did not come with the proper mounting tube for these bushings ~ Probably because we are using a bigger size swaybar for the racer than a normal Scout would need (The racer will need a higher strength torsion bar for the extremely high speeds and cornering it will see). Jeff cautioned us to make sure that we use a tube that the bushings aren't 'too loose' ~ as that would cause some slop, and premature/repeated/often failure of the bushings. So we took the bushings to my metal supplier and started playing with dail-calipers and different size tube. Turns out that the bushing has a 1 5/8" diameter (which means the tube we select will need that same size I.D.). We decided on 2" x 3/16" wall DOM tube.
The bushings for the sway-bar were pressed into the mounting tube.
Speaking of which. Here is the sway-bar kits Jeff sent us. A SPECIAL thanks to Jeff @ IHOnlyNorth for his support of this project. These kits are not cheap, and he's
the only shop to support Tom's racer build with a full sponsership of his product. If you are having problems with too much body roll, give him a call at
916-652-4706 or stop by his website at:
http://www.ihonlynorth.com. Jeff's swaybar kits will certainly help keep Tom's Scout sturdy around those high-speed turns.
With that, here's the other side w/ bushing pressed in.
Turns out that the DOM was just the ticket. The bushings needed to be tapped in with a rubber mallet and fit snug.
Jeff doesn't recommend trapping the sway bar's torsion bar in a tube as you see here.
The reason is that as it twists it'll distort and a tube that 'traps' it can interfere with its natural distortion. However, I mounted the tube like shown to make sure both ends of the tube were true with each other. Now that its securely in place, the middle of the tube can be cut out...if Tom sees the need to do that.
Although I'll post more pictures of the actual installation of the swaybars later, I plan on mounting them to the axle with these shock tabs.
It mounts to the axle tube as shown.
This is not the way Jeff normally mounts the bottoms. The reason I'm doing it this way is that it'll provide a double-sheer on the bolt that'll hold them in. Although a single sheer will be fine for a normal scout, for the racer, I want to make sure we're covered...and then some.
The rod ends that were sent have studs pressed/screwed in them, so I'm going to ask Jeff to send me a part number ~ or just different ones without this stud.
On the sway bar side, we'll mount them single sheer. The reason is that the steel arms are about 3/4" thick and so they are plenty strong enough to use the stud.
Last picture in this post is a little unrelated to the swaybar setup. Here's the bottom of the fuel cell's tray. As you can see, there is 2" tube protecting it in case it has a run-in with a rock....or three.
You can even see the sway bar mounts underneath the tube work.