I purchased a K-Mac sway bar kit several years ago and while assembling the rear subframe on the workbench, it was the appropriate time to fit it. I unboxed everything and found that the pick-up brackets supplied with the kit were very low quality so I decided to replicate them to a higher standard.
The other part of the kit that concerned me was the spacer used between the pairs of link bushes and retaining washers looked like it was made from scrap thin wall tube. I have no practical knowledge of whether this is actually a concern, so to put my mind at ease I machined up some much thicker spacers on the lathe to match the diameter of the bolt head & nut
That is where things went south. I should have attempted to fit the sway bar before making the new brackets because they cause the link bolt assembly to be mounted right in way of where the handbrake cable spring is supposed to run. There is no way the handbrake cable and spring would fit with this configuration. Seriously? Who designed this and thought it was acceptable?!
The swaybar itself was not the best quality either, bent 20mm too narrow so the sway bar holes didn't even line up with the pickup bracket holes (one side of the bar was bent at 81deg and other side at 89deg) and as well has a twist in it so that when I sat it on the ground, one side sat ~10mm above the other side! If I had not of purchased this kit over 4 years ago, I'd be sending it back for a full refund.
A fair bit of pushing, pulling, leverage and twisting in the vice later, I had the bends suitable so the links will clear everything, and no twist either. It's time to sit and stare for a while at the setup pictured below and design a brand new bracket that also clears everything...
The other part of the kit that concerned me was the spacer used between the pairs of link bushes and retaining washers looked like it was made from scrap thin wall tube. I have no practical knowledge of whether this is actually a concern, so to put my mind at ease I machined up some much thicker spacers on the lathe to match the diameter of the bolt head & nut
That is where things went south. I should have attempted to fit the sway bar before making the new brackets because they cause the link bolt assembly to be mounted right in way of where the handbrake cable spring is supposed to run. There is no way the handbrake cable and spring would fit with this configuration. Seriously? Who designed this and thought it was acceptable?!
The swaybar itself was not the best quality either, bent 20mm too narrow so the sway bar holes didn't even line up with the pickup bracket holes (one side of the bar was bent at 81deg and other side at 89deg) and as well has a twist in it so that when I sat it on the ground, one side sat ~10mm above the other side! If I had not of purchased this kit over 4 years ago, I'd be sending it back for a full refund.
A fair bit of pushing, pulling, leverage and twisting in the vice later, I had the bends suitable so the links will clear everything, and no twist either. It's time to sit and stare for a while at the setup pictured below and design a brand new bracket that also clears everything...
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