Broken sway bar mount?

Wheels, Suspension, Brakes & Tyres questions and answers

Moderators: timk, Stu, zombie, Andrew, -alex, miata

User avatar
rodent
강남 스타일
Posts: 801
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:17 pm
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney West

Broken sway bar mount?

Postby rodent » Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:33 pm

Hey guys, thought I'd pick your collective brains here about this.

The car is an '89 NA6 import. Sway bar mount on driver's side looks fine:

Image

...but the mount on the passenger side is broken, at both attachment points to the chassis rails :shock:

Image

Curiously, there are no bolts holding it in, looks like it has been welded there!

Has this happened to anyone before? Any ideas why one mount might be bolted to the rail while the other is welded?

And lastly - where can I get another bracket for cheap? :D
Image

User avatar
Garry
Speed Racer
Posts: 3481
Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2003 11:00 am
Vehicle: NB SP
Location: God's Country
Contact:

Broken sway bar mount?

Postby Garry » Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:47 pm

It's not unheard of them to break but usually when fitted with thicker after market sway bars. Not sure why the bracket would be welded on. The brackets on my NA8 had bolts in them like your first pic.
Shiney black one with added red bits. Member of the fart club. Now with extra doof and Sunlong. - deceased and gone to heaven

User avatar
Old Dude
Racing Driver
Posts: 1166
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:06 pm
Vehicle: NB8B
Location: Gold Coast

Broken sway bar mount?

Postby Old Dude » Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:04 pm

Nasty, Had the same thing happen to a holden panel van I had 100 years ago .Like Garry said mine was from an after market sway bar and was on the rear, good luck with the repairs, maybe mania or a wreckers if they are normally bolted.
Cheers
Dale 8)
"Everybody dies......, but not everybody lives" ;-)

MX 5 2001 Grace Green
NB8B

Juffa
Racing Driver
Posts: 1751
Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2003 11:00 am
Vehicle: ND - 2 GT
Location: Bayside - Melbourne
Contact:

Broken sway bar mount?

Postby Juffa » Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:37 am

With the Aussie $ running high this also might be an option?

http://www.racingbeat.com/resultset.asp ... mber=54121

J
Former owner of Mailbu Stacey, Smurfette and Tweety.

User avatar
Steampunk
Speed Racer
Posts: 4670
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:16 am
Vehicle: NA6
Location: Southside of Breeze-bane

Broken sway bar mount?

Postby Steampunk » Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:14 pm

They are welded on.

Fairly rare to have it break on a non race car, but it does happen.

Those Racing Beat ones work in theory, but there is a guy over in the US that has had his broken 3-4 times even with the RB kit fitted.
The majority of the stress that breaks them is torsional, not compression, which is what the RB brackets stop.

Anthony Wodford Racing (AWR) in the US have a heavy-duty mount that replaces the whole bracket with a super strong one.

Is your anti-sway bar adjustable? and if so, is it set on the hardest setting, putting excessive stress on the mount and end-links? Apparently this is the most common pre-disposition for breakage.
Image

User avatar
rodent
강남 스타일
Posts: 801
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:17 pm
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney West

Broken sway bar mount?

Postby rodent » Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:15 pm

Thanks for the responses.

As far as I'm aware, the sway bar is stock. The brackets are welded to one chassis rail, and bolted to the other. There's a whole lot of stuff that's not making sense to me at the moment :lol:

Looks like I'll have to give Mania a call for a replacement bracket, unless you know where else I might be able to find one?

Also, is that a power steering line underneath that the broken bracket is rubbing against? :shock:
Image

trader
Racing Driver
Posts: 797
Joined: Fri Oct 10, 2003 10:41 am
Vehicle: NB SE
Location: canberra

Broken sway bar mount?

Postby trader » Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:32 pm

Interestingly mine broke the drivers side one which was welded (bolted on passenger side) a couple of years ago. I got Carco Exhaust (Russell b uses this website) to weld it up. You can see break is in the same position as yours rodent. At that time Russell was making a setup similar to racing beats. I put one in and have had no problems since. The blue section is what Russell made and I fashioned up the remainder. His number is 02 62531396.

http://img407.imageshack.us/g/img1677b.jpg/
NB SE, NA 1.8.

User avatar
rodent
강남 스타일
Posts: 801
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:17 pm
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney West

Broken sway bar mount?

Postby rodent » Fri Nov 13, 2009 5:03 am

Ah, nice work trader.
Not sure I'll need the additional bracing yet as I'm sure this is a fairly one-off thing, far from being a common complaint on these forums.

Called Mania yesterday and spoke to David - apparently the bracket is meant to be both bolted and spot-welded on. Brand new they should cost about $60ish.
Image


Return to “MX5 Wheels, Suspension, Brakes & Tyres”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 103 guests