Racing Beat (or any) sway bar reinforcement

[fwdtamiya]

Not mine, I just ran across this in suggested/related youtube videos and was cringing through the video, just yelling "why!?"

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3deivrLzxmo

Much better. Everything is in it's place and everything is fine in the world again.

[Vegard]

Add to cart

But before I do that, which are out there? I'll take a look myself while awaiting others experience.

[fwdtamiya]

AWR offer thicker versions of the oem metal and RB offer the blocks seen above with/without the brace to tie them together. Those are the only two "off the shelf" solutions that I know of off hand.

[MLambert19]

I think FM has a solution, too... https://www.flyinmiata.com/na-nb-heavy-duty-sway-bar-mounts.html

[Phatmiata]

I have the Racing Beat front sway and 949 endlinks, have not installed them yet though, guess I should watch the videos eh?

[wannafbody]

The blocks are easier to install.

[Greasemonkey2000]

I have the Racing Beat front sway and 949 endlinks, have not installed them yet though, guess I should watch the videos eh?

If it's the larger 1.125" hollow one then yup i would. :fp: After seeing that video i went with the Racing Beat blocks since i was going with the Racing Beat 1.125" hollow front sway bar . They are a pain to install but well worth it. In fact as far as installing them i think it took longer to remove and reinstall the blocks then the coilovers themselves i swapped Saturday. Tightening the nuts against the blocks is what is time consuming since space is tight and might get a half turn at most at a time.

I didn't have to touch them to tighten up in a year and a half of street driving, that is they wasn't loose when i swapped coilovers. Although it wouldn't be hard just to retorque them if needed.

[mx54life]

I think FM has a solution, too... https://www.flyinmiata.com/na-nb-heavy-duty-sway-bar-mounts.html

Those are the AWR beefed up sway bar mounts. You will have to remove the OEM ones. Fitting those requires a lot of patience......

[oldgrayleather]

I'm so mechanically illiterate (at present :) I had to watch both videos a couple times even to spot the difference. Just to confirm I've got it, sway bar installation requires removal of the metal support the bar is fed through, right?

[Greasemonkey2000]

No sir. The factory sway bar mount stays and the blocks add rigidity. You just have two longer bolts with nuts and the blocks.

The longer bolts go thru the sway bar mount then into the blocks and a set of nuts that go on the bolts below the blocks that you tighten up against the blocks, make sense?

[oldgrayleather]

Thanks GreaseMonkey! That does make sense except I'm now confused about what I can't spot in the first video that was corrected in the second?!

[Greasemonkey2000]

The sway bar mount itself that mounts to the chassis is flexing pretty badly, watch it again and you will see it. The larger sway bar in itself MAY NOT do this but with sticky, wider rubber it will like in the video with the Toyo R1R tires, probably 225's.

[RustRat]

Thanks, Greasemonkey. I failed to understamd what was going on, too ^_^ Now I get it

[Greasemonkey2000]

No worries Proyea and Peter! :drinkto: Glad i can finally be of some assistance to someone. :fp:

[freedomgli]

Everything on a Miata flexes. It only gets worse with age and modifications like sticky tires and stiffer sway bars. The sway bar mount flex slightly alters the roll stiffness but really isn't that big of a deal until the mount reaches its fatigue life and cracks. Then you've got no choice but to remove and install new mounts. So if you auto-x or track your car it's better to reinforce the mounts before that happens with the RB spacer kit (cheap and easy to install) or upgrade to the heavy duty AWR mounts (more expensive and more difficult to install). I only ended up with the AWR mounts because it was the most logical means to install a 1.8 sway bar in my 1.6 chassis.

[oldgrayleather]

Thanks to this thread (Garret and Greasemonkey specifically!) and some more research I understand a lot more about sway bars than I did. Grazi!

One last clarifying question.. I shouldn't be able to see the blocks in the video right, just the improvement of them being installed?

[Greasemonkey2000]

You can see the drivers side block in the video. Look above the white RB sway bar bushing strap and you will see the two bolts with nuts and then above them is the block, see:

3deivrLzxmo

[oldgrayleather]

Finally - I can see it!!!! Thanks for all your patience GM

[wannafbody]

Miatas aren't the only car with this issue. I broke a swaybar mount on my TA driving on the street.