Front Tyre Wear

[Smoke them tyres]

A stiffer or fitted rear bar in these cars will cause more weight transfer to the front in cornering, and overloading the available grip from the outside front tyre.

Sway bars are about weight transfer....lateral AND diagonal.

[dule]

Well that's what I thought and what my limited driving with no rear bar showed.

Edit: in response to Spoonys post just above...

Edited 17/11/10 10:58 PM by dule

[Smoke them tyres]

A stiffer or fitted rear bar in these cars will cause more weight transfer to the front in cornering, and overloading the available grip from the outside front tyre.

Sway bars are about weight transfer....lateral AND diagonal.

[Wenier]

I also thought the rear sway being fitted added oversteer, so removing should of been understeer inducing.

[Guest XR09]

Or if you have coil overs you can raise the rear ride hight. Raising the roll center, per say. Really just exagerating the weight shift. It does stop it bouncing to and fro.

Oh so many ways to skin a cat. Swat makes suspension so much fun.

Don't think I would like to take the rear sway off with the std spring weight. Woo hoo you could get busy keeping the rear behind you. But in saying that, it does step out very nice and progressively without the sway. Would be the go for dirt roads.

Once your doing about seventy on a dirt road the Teins really start to shine. I was really impressed with how smooth the ride was across corrigations, ruts and big bumps. On the tar I have to be going well over 140 for them to feel that soft. Even backed right off they still feel stiffer than the ssl kings.

Going to a 27mm rear bar made my car push like crazy in the slower corners. It was so sure and positive in the quicker corners though. Really confidence inspiring. But when it went it was like 2 ton had just landed on the outer rear. Nothing or no one could bring it back. So putting down the power was not easy either.

Personaly I would rather rely on my springs, with a little assist from the bars. I like my cars and bikes stiff. Hate that floating feeling or double dips into a corner.

Ps. If you changed the complete Upper control arm to a composite. Would it have to be ARD'ed.... bugger yeh I know

[johno]

Swapped my 17 wheels for 18s when I got it. The 17s were worn on the insides real bad.

Took it for an allignment, and the bloke said they are bad for flogging out lower ball joints. My RH one was shagged. He replaced it, and fitted camber shims, put 40lbs in the tyres, so will see how it goes.

It is not only Falcons with this problem. My daughters VT Clubsport has the same wear issues.

[Dirty32]

XR09 - a 27mm rear bar??

I didnt think they came that big. I thought 22mm was the norm with the 24mm pushing it up a notch?

[Guest XR09]

Its an FG. And a bar a mate had. I will checkit but am sure its a solid 27mm. Fronts for the FG are 33mm or more. Std are 30mm. Overly soft springing I would guess.

Edited 18/11/10 08:42 AM by XR09
No need to quote above post. USE FAST REPLY

[Smoke them tyres]

I don't know that they are any worse on ball joints than any other car....Falcons usually have pretty strong/suitably engineered suspensions. Usually it is the passenger side that suffers due to road camber, road edges etc.

All original and replacement parts (ball joints, bearings, uni joints etc) come with minimal grease in them and this is most of the reason why the ball stud chops out prematurely......insufficient lubrication, the inability to exclude moisture and the lack of grease allowing the boot to fold on itself creating an early tear point to let dirt in.....accelerated wear is then inevitable. The best ones were in older cars that if well greased and maintained that way via a grease nipple, would almost last the life of the car. New cars no longer have them fitted. The manufacturers of the parts need to lift their game and fit more grease into the parts they make.

I got myself a grease needle sometime ago from a local tool shop for about $7 and did all the ball/spherical joints in the car. Each one took at least 5-8 pumps of the grease gun....that's how empty they were at 30,000k's. The rear spherical joints that mate to the rear hubs were already showing signs of dryness. It did require some suspension dis-assembly, but I figure that this is less costly and trouble than having to replace parts down the track.

Edited 18/11/10 11:29 AM by Smoke them tyres

[Smoke them tyres]

  On 18/11/2010 at 2:30 AM, Wenier said:

I also thought the rear sway being fitted added oversteer, so removing should of been understeer inducing.

No, it should restore it to an equilibrium (mid) point that is somewhere around the "window" we want, but I think you are thinking of sway bars in the right way (IMO).

Edited 18/11/10 12:15 PM by Smoke them tyres