Rear sway link question??

#1

I purchased an e30 racer last year with incomplete technical records. The car is a 1987 325is. While surveying the car’s underside in my freezing garage this week, I noticed that the passenger side rear sway bar link is completely missing. Hmmmm. Is that normal/OK? is this a racing setup technique? or did it just fall off? Should I replace? I am attaching a picture of the driver side rear link. If any of you recognize the setup (stock or another brand) of the link and/or the green sway bar please ID for me. If it should be replaced, where can I buy the pieces? Thanks. Like I say, the records on the car are absent and I’m new to e30’s. See you at CMP?

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#2

Your pic did not show up. Anyway, it is common to remove the link from one side if you want to disconnect the bar. I have done this in the past. You don’t have to remove the bar or even both links as removing one make the bar not function as a spring anymore. I would contact the seller as I bet the missing link is sitting in the top of their tool box.

Michael O.

#3

What Michael said…Also, and you might be aware of it already, I don’t think your spring/shock set-up is SpecE30 legal.

Looking at swaybar mounting on the trailing arm – are those reinforcements welded to the TA or just bolted? If latter you might want to weld them as they will not do much for you.

Regards,
Igor

#4

Also, if you need to buy new links you can just take your old one off and go to Granger or McMaster-Carr and buy the pices to make one.

#5

Suspension techniques bars can be green - mine is, Mike’s is red. The links look OK as well.

#6

Racing dynamics bars are green too I think. And yes, weld those reinforcements on…Mo betta that way

#7

Thanks for the quick responses. (Yes, I know the car doesn’t meet SE30 rules…in more ways than one. So, I’ll be running GTS, officially, for a while; but I hope to be in the same group with the SE30 crowd.) So it sounds like it’s OK to have a missing link. I’ll carry on for a while and maybe replace it some day.

#8

It looks like the ireland setup (suspension technique bar) and end links to me, but that’s just a guess

#9

alfageorgia wrote:

As Michael mentioned, with one link missing, the bar isn’t working at all. It’s as if you have no rear bar.

When connected at both ends, the bar acts like a torsion bar spring. That is, it resists twisting - as if you were wringing out a wet towel.

Having one end loose is just like trying to wring out the towel but holding one end and not the other. You won’t get any water out…

How’s that for a cleaner salesman explanation?

:stuck_out_tongue:

Carter

#10

Carter, you do have a way with words :slight_smile: That’s why you are in administration, I guess. Well, I’ll be running with a one-ended wet towel on my car for a while…
Is that still effective in the desert climates?
Jon

#11

alfageorgia wrote:

[quote]Carter, you do have a way with words :slight_smile: That’s why you are in administration, I guess. Well, I’ll be running with a one-ended wet towel on my car for a while…
Is that still effective in the desert climates?
Jon[/quote] the car will probably push pretty bad

#12

As they say in NASCAR country, "She’s gonna poosh somethin’ awful."