Difficulty with inner front sway bar mount 1 inch sway bar

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Vkgallo
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2015 2:43 pm
Your car is a: 1981 Fiat Spider

Difficulty with inner front sway bar mount 1 inch sway bar

Postby Vkgallo » Sun Sep 18, 2016 6:48 pm

Has anyone else ran into this issue? A few years ago I purchased a 1 inch custom front sway bar from Vick auto. The bushings that had the 1 inch opening that came with the kit never fit right in the factory mount. The bar would rub metal to metal. I even tried buying the yellow polly ones and they are no better. I also tried universal ones and they are way too big. The problem is that all the bushings I tried are too big and/or dont have enough material to prevent metal to metal under load. I noticed that the new 1 inch sway bar kits being sold now include new universal mounts that are flat and mount flat against the frame rail. This differs from the spaced mounts from the factory. I tried bying universal 1 inch mounts and there is not enough space to use that type of mounting system. This is because the flat mount causes interference with the thermo fan sensor in the radiator and the bottom neck to mount the radiator hose.

I called Vicks to see if the new sway bars have a different design which allows the flat mount style. They said there is no difference and that they have never heard of the interference issue I describe before. Has anyone else had this issue? If so what did you do to solve the problem? Is there a supplier that has custom spaced inner mounts that is designed to fit the universal 1 inch bushings?

fiat218
Posts: 5745
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 5:06 pm
Your car is a: 1969 124 AS spider

Re: Difficulty with inner front sway bar mount 1 inch sway bar

Postby fiat218 » Sun Sep 18, 2016 8:55 pm

Just my opinion. VICK'S is not the place to buy anything
Jim
East Grand Forks MN
1970 Fiat Spider BS1 ( FOR SALE
1969 124 AS Spider
2017 Abrath
2018 Alfa Romeo 4c Spider

vandor
Posts: 3996
Joined: Sat May 23, 2009 1:23 pm
Your car is a: 1971 124 Spider
Location: Texas, USA

Re: Difficulty with inner front sway bar mount 1 inch sway bar

Postby vandor » Mon Sep 19, 2016 1:05 am

Yes, the bushings have always been too big to fit in the stock center brackets. I use a bench grinder to reduce the outside size so they fit better. The swaybar should have come with some washers so one can space apart the upper and lower brackets.
Csaba
'71 124 Spider, much modified
'17 124 Abarth, silver
http://italiancarclub.com/csaba/
Co-owner of the best dang Fiat parts place in town

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So Cal Mark
Posts: 13839
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2006 3:45 pm
Your car is a: Fiat
Location: upland, ca.

Re: Difficulty with inner front sway bar mount 1 inch sway bar

Postby So Cal Mark » Mon Sep 19, 2016 1:25 am

the Addco bars come with the center brackets, the outer brackets have to be re-used
Mark Allison
allisonsautomotive.com Fiat and Alfa Romeo parts and service. Performance parts our specialty!
Headers, ignitions, wheels, cams, flywheels
starsmark@hotmail.com 909-981-3566

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Sparky
Posts: 114
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2016 10:53 am
Your car is a: 1978 Fiat 124
Location: Pacific Northwest

Re: Difficulty with inner front sway bar mount 1 inch sway bar

Postby Sparky » Thu Nov 10, 2016 12:21 pm

I'm still shopping around for a spider so I can't take any measurents, but if you want to make some dimensions sketches, I could design and machine some better mounts. The 1" front swaybar is definitely already earmarked on my overhaul budget.
-= 1978 Fiat Spider =-


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