Re: Speaking of Sway bars

[trnsfrma@ix.netcom.com (Shawn C. Meze)]

At 11:02 PM 2/16/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Ok I'm sorry but I haven't been paying a lot of attention when it comes
>to sway bars. I have an '87 16V and was wondering are aftermarket bars a
>world of difference between the  stock sway bars? 

Completely. The difference is huge! Althought the stock swaybars are much better 
than the setup I had on my Scirocco (I had NO swaybars) Upgrading to the 22mm front 
and 25mm or 28mm rear is like night and day. 

>I never really thought much about getting sway bars, but something on my
>car is out of align or something about the suspension is wrong. I was
>going to take it into a guy at Midaz (He is good though raced Rabbits in
>the past) I guess he would be a good person to ask too.


Ew, thats a bad word...
Then again, if he is whats available to you, then go have a chat with him. 



>My car pulls to the left espically under braking and it just has rattles
>and dosen't feel quite right, (can't expalin it much better) At 70MPH it
>just dosen't feel real solid what is the best fix for this? It seems the
>feel of the car has declined from a year ago when I first for my BOGE
>shocks and Eibach lowering springs. Maybe these shocks are going bad??
>WHo knows they don't have a lot of travel but I don't think they ever
>did.


Pulls to the left, under braking. The key word there is...............Braking. Take 
a peek at your front rotors, see what kind of shape their in. Also look at the 
pads. Theres all those reasons for brakes to pull to one s
ide.
1. Incorect tire pressure
2. Front end out of allignment
3. Excessive wear on pads/shoes, drums/disks. 
4. loose calipers, loose suspension parts.
5. Flat strut  (Ut-oh!)

You could even have 2 different brands of tires on the front and it will effet 
braking. But since you say its been gradually getting worse, Id look at the brakes 
themselves. (the front)
The rattle you speak of could be your strut bearings. 


>I probobly should have been paying more attention to these posts in the
>past. WHat is the best mod for the money. I don't want to spend a lot of
>money for minimal a minimal effect. 


First find out whats wrong and then make a game plan. 


>Is there a huge difference in upgrading sway bars? How about the strut
>tie bar? I've heard that this dosen't do a lot to your handling but
>makes the car feel more secure. How a car feels is important to me.


See above. If you install a 22mm front bar, a 28mm rear bar and the upper stress 
bar, your car will corner much flatter and genarally handle better. (If you have 
the 16V you already have the lower stress bar, if not and you only choose one item 
to upgrade to, get the lower stress bar. It has the most effectiveness for the 
money, hands down) 
A good example is tonight, on my way down my test canyon. (Yesterday I put in a new 
SACHS 2.0L clutch, lower control bushings, Nology wires and my 80% diff kit test) I 
caught this Camaro that wanted to play. Cool. There is an uphill tight right hander 
followed by another tight right hander as you accelerate up the hill. I was stuck 
on him like glue through the first turn and I decided he was going too slow, so I 
passed him. Going through the second tight turn, he fell back. HP dont mean shit 
when you can get it through the corners! When I stopped to make another run, he 
pulled off and wanted to look under the hood. He thinks I have 200+ hp the way I 
pulled away from him on the hill and the way I went through the corners. I love it 
when they pop off questions like, "Turbo"? no. "NOS"? no. "SUPERCHARGER"? no. Then 
the squinty look just before they scratch their head. Well then you got a VR6? uh, 
no, not even. He didnt believe me when I said the motor was "almost stock".  The 
point is, (Finally, right!) you can make it seem that you have more power when you 
can maintain speed and velocity (And control!) through corners. 

BTW, the diff kit is great! I wish I would of gotten one earlier........

Mr. Mannix, please dont tell Mr. Walters I have one, he doesnt know about it, Yet! 
Maybe on the 23rd he will find out about it. (Or maybe he wont notice a thing..)


Shawn
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