After finding out that the link bracket supplied with the sway bar kit was useless, I had to design a new bracket that cleared everything. I went through 4 different designs by both sketching them and using thick cardboard/super glue and with some help from some local Mini club members reviewing the design iterations, I decided on the design you see below.
Firstly, I didn't know the normal position / angle of the radius arm as it would be on a road going Mini. I asked a fellow Mini club member to measure the position of the radius arm in relation to the subframe and on his (normal height/non-lowered) Mini, the distance between the shock absorber stud on the radius arm and the bottom of the subframe was 75mm. As luck had it, the subframe and radius arms as it sat on my bench with radius arms fitted was within 2mm of that. The reason for this measurement is that I wanted to perform the sway bar install as if the car was in a neutral suspension position. To note, in the following photos, the subframe is upside down.
I already had the design of the link bracket confirmed however I needed to confirm the height of the bracket so that the sway bar was parallel to the radius arm (and the link bracket to perpendicular to sway bar and radius arm) so the link bushes wouldn't have any additional load in normal driving conditions. As a reference, the radius arm was at 12.1°.
I propped up the sway bar to that angle, made some measurements and fabricated a pair of link brackets (and also another pair for a local Mini club member who had the same style sway bar). The bracket slides over the shock absorber stud on the radius arm and is made of 30x5mm flat steel bar and custom bolt (machined and thread tapped on my lathe). The 5mm thick gusset down one side strengthens the whole bracket and also helps to transfer the vertical load to the stud. It will still need to be cleaned up (sand blasted) and painted.
At this point I also had to tweak the bend angles of the sway bar (in the vice) to match up with where the link bracket bolts were. Once installed, I measure the angle of the sway bar and at 11.3°, I was impressed that I managed to achieve within 1 degree of the radius arm.
From there, holes for the bush saddles were drilled and everything bolted in. As I expected, the brake lines I recently made fouled against the new brackets so I will have to remake those, but that's not a big job. The paint job on the sway bar is also quite patchy so I'll have to strip and repaint it.
Firstly, I didn't know the normal position / angle of the radius arm as it would be on a road going Mini. I asked a fellow Mini club member to measure the position of the radius arm in relation to the subframe and on his (normal height/non-lowered) Mini, the distance between the shock absorber stud on the radius arm and the bottom of the subframe was 75mm. As luck had it, the subframe and radius arms as it sat on my bench with radius arms fitted was within 2mm of that. The reason for this measurement is that I wanted to perform the sway bar install as if the car was in a neutral suspension position. To note, in the following photos, the subframe is upside down.
I already had the design of the link bracket confirmed however I needed to confirm the height of the bracket so that the sway bar was parallel to the radius arm (and the link bracket to perpendicular to sway bar and radius arm) so the link bushes wouldn't have any additional load in normal driving conditions. As a reference, the radius arm was at 12.1°.
I propped up the sway bar to that angle, made some measurements and fabricated a pair of link brackets (and also another pair for a local Mini club member who had the same style sway bar). The bracket slides over the shock absorber stud on the radius arm and is made of 30x5mm flat steel bar and custom bolt (machined and thread tapped on my lathe). The 5mm thick gusset down one side strengthens the whole bracket and also helps to transfer the vertical load to the stud. It will still need to be cleaned up (sand blasted) and painted.
At this point I also had to tweak the bend angles of the sway bar (in the vice) to match up with where the link bracket bolts were. Once installed, I measure the angle of the sway bar and at 11.3°, I was impressed that I managed to achieve within 1 degree of the radius arm.
From there, holes for the bush saddles were drilled and everything bolted in. As I expected, the brake lines I recently made fouled against the new brackets so I will have to remake those, but that's not a big job. The paint job on the sway bar is also quite patchy so I'll have to strip and repaint it.
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