The reason to use adjustable sway bar end links
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The reason to use adjustable sway bar end links
Most of your vehicles will not need our adjustable sway bar end links but there is a small number of people who definitely can benefit from them. These end links are for those customers that purchased coil-overs and have made the investment to have the car corner balanced. You cannot corner balance your car correctly without these sway bar end links.
The first step in corner balancing your vehicle is disconnecting the front and rear sway bar. In order to corner balance your car, the pre-load from the sway bars has to be released to get a correct reading. After you are done scaling the car it is time to put the sway bars back on. Check your car on the scales after you have attached the sway bar and you will see that all of your weights have changed. With the adjustable sway bar end links you can adjust the bar to the exact weight that was there before you attached the bars. Once you make this adjustment and the weight is the same with and without the sway bars connected you have managed to set your sway bar to zero pre-load which is exactly where you want them to be.
There is also the ability to shift weight around the corners of your car through pre-load. You can now easily move weight from the right side to the left side rear of your car and vice versa. I'm sure your can come up with some ideas on how that can help you at the drag strip and in certain situations.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I have learned a lot about this stuff in the last year or so but I am still learning a lot about it. From what I have seen so far, I do not know how they can sell coil-over kits without these parts.
THERE IS NO WAY THIS CAN BE DONE WITHOUT THESE END LINKS!!!!!
FRONTS-$325.00/pair
REARS-$275.00/pair
The first step in corner balancing your vehicle is disconnecting the front and rear sway bar. In order to corner balance your car, the pre-load from the sway bars has to be released to get a correct reading. After you are done scaling the car it is time to put the sway bars back on. Check your car on the scales after you have attached the sway bar and you will see that all of your weights have changed. With the adjustable sway bar end links you can adjust the bar to the exact weight that was there before you attached the bars. Once you make this adjustment and the weight is the same with and without the sway bars connected you have managed to set your sway bar to zero pre-load which is exactly where you want them to be.
There is also the ability to shift weight around the corners of your car through pre-load. You can now easily move weight from the right side to the left side rear of your car and vice versa. I'm sure your can come up with some ideas on how that can help you at the drag strip and in certain situations.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I have learned a lot about this stuff in the last year or so but I am still learning a lot about it. From what I have seen so far, I do not know how they can sell coil-over kits without these parts.
THERE IS NO WAY THIS CAN BE DONE WITHOUT THESE END LINKS!!!!!
FRONTS-$325.00/pair
REARS-$275.00/pair
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2012 E550 Cab
Not a good idea to jack weight around using the links. The sway bars tortional response is not linear. As you insert preload the response changes and becomes more imediate as well as changing the corner weights to both sides. Use the springs they are independant and more predictable. Link adjustment is good for fine tuning to a specific track etc. but for gross adjustment, as I mentioned, use the coil over adjustment.
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Not a good idea to jack weight around using the links. The sway bars tortional response is not linear. As you insert preload the response changes and becomes more imediate as well as changing the corner weights to both sides. Use the springs they are independant and more predictable. Link adjustment is good for fine tuning to a specific track etc. but for gross adjustment, as I mentioned, use the coil over adjustment.
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2012 E550 Cab
This is coming from a road race guy, been road racing almost 40 years. Not much if any experience with drag racing. But anyway, it would seem just as easy to adjust the relative rear tire air pressures to acomplish the same type of effect as preloading the swaybar, side to side. Tire pressure changes are usually very predictable and repeatable. I understand what you're saying, this is just two ways of doing the same thing.
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This is coming from a road race guy, been road racing almost 40 years. Not much if any experience with drag racing. But anyway, it would seem just as easy to adjust the relative rear tire air pressures to acomplish the same type of effect as preloading the swaybar, side to side. Tire pressure changes are usually very predictable and repeatable. I understand what you're saying, this is just two ways of doing the same thing.
Tire pressures in a drag race car are adjusted to maximize traction. I used to run tire pressures between 4-5psi. I think they are running higher tire pressures in the last couple of years with the newer tires. To get more weight transfer we always did it through adjusting a bar, never a spring. If the car was not tracking straight from the line, we always made a small adjustment on a bar. By making those adjustments and shortening or lengthening the bar we would change the scale weight. To actually move weight around in the car we would actually move ballast. If you look at a drag car when they are working on it you will see lead donuts bolted in different places around the car to move weight around. A big misconception in drag racing is that the more weight you have in the rear of the car the better but, if you look at the fastest cars, you will usually see a lot of extra weight hanging off the front of the car.
There are so many variables in road racing to make your car competitive and you guys have to have a great package that is reliable over a long period of time. Drag racers have a few seconds to get the most out of the car and they go to great lengths to make very small adjustments to do that.
Last edited by Staff@RPM; 01-25-2012 at 03:01 PM.
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Good to see a vendor with a realistic price point not like all the other ones that add the MB tax due to RD ( yeah right ). I'm about to sell AMG Velcro and call it AMG.1 or any other name for that matter and charge $45.00 a foot lol
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Add some profit into the product so that other shops can still buy them and make a few dollars on them and then offer something that is of high quality, made in America and works as advertised at a good price.
I could have easily gone overseas and I could be selling those units at 1/2 the price of these but you do get what you pay for. The fittings on the rod ends that the bolts go through are expensive on these, Chinese made units use straight aluminum spacers which cause problems down the line. I'm not going to throw any other companies under the bus, there is a customer for every product at every price point but I believe the buyers here are happy to pay for something that is worth the money.
Making these wasn't rocket science.
Last edited by Staff@RPM; 01-25-2012 at 08:22 PM.
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Just received mine this morning, under 2 weeks to arrive to Australia from the US. The quality is outstanding, very well made. I should be able to install them sometime next week. Thanks for your help Wayne
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#14
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Went to get them installed yesterday but the shop didn't have a 4 post drive on hoist only a 2 post hoist where the wheels would of been off the ground when the car was lifted. They said the car needs to be on ground level to install them correctly. I noticed they are considerably shorter than the factory links even when their fully extended. Are they correct in saying remove both factory links, adjust the sway bar and install one side to where suits then just slot in the other side. Does it really matter exactly how much each end is wound out or in?
Thanks
Thanks
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Went to get them installed yesterday but the shop didn't have a 4 post drive on hoist only a 2 post hoist where the wheels would of been off the ground when the car was lifted. They said the car needs to be on ground level to install them correctly. I noticed they are considerably shorter than the factory links even when their fully extended. Are they correct in saying remove both factory links, adjust the sway bar and install one side to where suits then just slot in the other side. Does it really matter exactly how much each end is wound out or in?
Thanks
Thanks
#16
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I removed one of the front wheels today and measured it while it was on the car. It measured approximately 340-345mm total length compared to the adjustable ones which are around 30 - 35mm shorter. Sorry the pictures are not the best as I had limited space. You can see the difference in length between the factory ones and yours which are fully extended with only a couple of threads holding each end in, I think you would only want them wound half way out at each end to be safe. Are they still ok to use even though they are shorter?
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I removed one of the front wheels today and measured it while it was on the car. It measured approximately 340-345mm total length compared to the adjustable ones which are around 30 - 35mm shorter. Sorry the pictures are not the best as I had limited space. You can see the difference in length between the factory ones and yours which are fully extended with only a couple of threads holding each end in, I think you would only want them wound half way out at each end to be safe. Are they still ok to use even though they are shorter?
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Last edited by Staff@RPM; 02-13-2012 at 11:40 AM.
#18
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I wouldn't of thought RHD drive cars would be different than LHD cars. I tried measuring the total length of the rod rather than bolt to bolt ,It's quite hard to measure when it's on the car
#21
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The US vehicle, which is what I made them for, measures 10.25" from bolt to bolt which is a lot shorter than 340mm. I will PM you some instructions on what to measure and I will get some longer rods made for your application and send it right out to you. I really didn't think this would be a part that would change that much. I assume your car is a right hand drive then with such a big difference between yours and the US car.
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