OEM sway bar bushings fixed?

[JRTritsch]

I was pulling the oem away out of my 23 for an aftermarket bar and noticed the oem sway bushings appear to be permanently attached to the bar. The bar cannot rotate freely at all.
This should add a considerable amount of wheel spring rate. Has anyone else noticed this?

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[razorlab]

Mine turned just fine. Did you give it the ol' good ol' boys effort? Pretty sure the leverage that bar puts on those bushings isn't something to laugh about.

 

[JRTritsch]

I can hang my entire 180 lbs off it and they do not slip. The bar rotates of course but the rubber springs back. The entire movement range of the bar is allowed by the bushings without the bar actually rotating inside

 

[SilverBully]

Is this the rear bar???

I just recently notice while installing end links that it DOES NOT move freely even when both sides are disconnected, it’s driving me crazy because I don’t think this is normal either.

Did you figure out if this is normal on the Supra? I can’t find any info on this anywhere

edit: the bushings providing extra torsion resistance just does not sound right…

 

[i3igpete]

This is known as a captive or bonded bushing and i also noticed it on my front bar when i removed it on my 2023.

This can lead to weird behavior. One of the DE instructors from NASA great lakes noted some weird understeer behavior on his AIX mustang went away when he switched to an aftermarket front bar, despite the aftermarket one being stiffer.

Related threads here:

https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/pp-sway-bar-bonded-bushings-a-cautionary-tale.132315/

Looks like this guy was part of the ford suspension team that designed them:

https://trackmustangsonline.com/threads/s197-spring-and-sway-bar-rates.13152/page-3

you are welcome stevbd, bonding is about a 7% rate increase from slippy.. however slippy can wear out the center hole very fast and the bushing rate falls off a cliff.. You are allowed up to 35% rate loss after the full vehicle durability if that tells you anything. Usually you want 20-25% deg max but that's a lot more than 7% bump you get by bonding. The other stange thing about bonding is its called a parasitic rate because its not increasing the effectiveness of the bar its reducing it..example over speed bumps a normal slippy racecar system has no affect but with bonded bushings all of a sudden you are adding the wind up of bushings to spring rate!

 

[SilverBully]

This is known as a captive or bonded bushing and i also noticed it on my front bar when i removed it on my 2023.

This can lead to weird behavior. One of the DE instructors from NASA great lakes noted some weird understeer behavior on his AIX mustang went away when he switched to an aftermarket front bar, despite the aftermarket one being stiffer.

Related threads here:

https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/pp-sway-bar-bonded-bushings-a-cautionary-tale.132315/

Looks like this guy was part of the ford suspension team that designed them:

https://trackmustangsonline.com/threads/s197-spring-and-sway-bar-rates.13152/page-3

Thank you for the info! I have never heard of these and I despite doing some googling I could not find anything. It has driving me crazy since my rear passenger side keeps squeaking and clicking. At least this rules out the sway bar for now!

 

[i3igpete]

Just out of curiosity I went and grabbed my OEM front sway bar from the bin o' parts and made sure I wasn't crazy. This thing probably isn't meant to spin.

 

[SilverBully]

Just out of curiosity I went and grabbed my OEM front sway bar from the bin o' parts and made sure I wasn't crazy. This thing probably isn't meant to spin.

That’s actually crazy, I can’t believe this is only 7% increase - What aftermarket swaybar did you fit into your car? Did you do the front only?

 

[i3igpete]

I think he was referring to radial stiffness of the bushing, not torsional

 

[SilverBully]

I think he was referring to radial stiffness of the bushing, not torsional

But this type of bushing also has to increase torsional resistance, no?

I mean the bar takes a lot of force to move even an inch even when it’s disconnected on both ends…

also, Im sorry, I have no clue what I’m talking about

 

[i3igpete]

Correct, the bushing applies a torsional stiffness to the bar that is felt as a translational force at the knuckle. At compression, it helps the springs. At droop, it fights the springs.

 

[SilverBully]

Thanks for clarifying!

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