DIY rear "sway bar"
Member
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 200
From: NSW, Australia
If it's anything like mine, no.
It's not a separate part as such, it's welded into the twist beam. If you have access to a Fit Sport rear axle, you'll need to use the whole thing. Trying to remove the sway bar from the axle will destroy the axle anyway.
You can see the end of it welded into place here:
The rest of the bar sits inside the twist beam with a rubber damper at the centre:
It's not a separate part as such, it's welded into the twist beam. If you have access to a Fit Sport rear axle, you'll need to use the whole thing. Trying to remove the sway bar from the axle will destroy the axle anyway.
You can see the end of it welded into place here:
The rest of the bar sits inside the twist beam with a rubber damper at the centre:
Last edited by rosswond; Aug 26, 2009 at 04:29 PM. Reason: Fixed typos
Member
Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 114
From: Hanover, PA
If you really want to DIY and make the rear beam extremely stiff, you could always box in the open side of the rear beam with a long piece of steel. However, at this point you're permanently modifying the rear beam and adding what is certainly more stiffness than any aftermarket sway bar to the rear beam, making handling potentially quite dodgy. If you enjoy lots of oversteer at any bit of provocation, this may be for you 
Member
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 200
From: NSW, Australia
If you really want to DIY and make the rear beam extremely stiff, you could always box in the open side of the rear beam with a long piece of steel. However, at this point you're permanently modifying the rear beam and adding what is certainly more stiffness than any aftermarket sway bar to the rear beam, making handling potentially quite dodgy. If you enjoy lots of oversteer at any bit of provocation, this may be for you
Under normal driving, you will get a nasty surprise whenever you back off in a corner - especially on a wet road. Reminds me of my old Mini actually...
It's also perhaps worth noting that the toe change as the beam twists will be different. Your risk of shearing the whole thing along your welds is pretty high as well, not to mention the increased loads on the suspension mountings.
All in all I don't really recommend it for road use. It might be worth experimenting for a track car, but it really is all or nothing. Get an aftermarket sway bar.
I havent had the stones to try this myself, but I was reading a tech article on sway bar stiffness versus diameter, and I got to thinking . Our torsion bar rear suspension is basically a sway bar and a swing arm all in one, and from what I can tell it was hollow, in theory if it could be filled with a structural foam, it should give us a nice stiff rear end, for about $40 and with a negligable weight increase. I might get bored this summer and give it a try. But if someone can beat me to the punch, go for it.
Member
Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 114
From: Hanover, PA
Rear wheel dangling in the air FTW!
Under normal driving, you will get a nasty surprise whenever you back off in a corner - especially on a wet road. Reminds me of my old Mini actually...
It's also perhaps worth noting that the toe change as the beam twists will be different. Your risk of shearing the whole thing along your welds is pretty high as well, not to mention the increased loads on the suspension mountings.
All in all I don't really recommend it for road use. It might be worth experimenting for a track car, but it really is all or nothing. Get an aftermarket sway bar.
Under normal driving, you will get a nasty surprise whenever you back off in a corner - especially on a wet road. Reminds me of my old Mini actually...
It's also perhaps worth noting that the toe change as the beam twists will be different. Your risk of shearing the whole thing along your welds is pretty high as well, not to mention the increased loads on the suspension mountings.
All in all I don't really recommend it for road use. It might be worth experimenting for a track car, but it really is all or nothing. Get an aftermarket sway bar.
Wasn't suggested as a seriously consideration.
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