Anti-roll Bar Mounting Points

[Guest John Williams]

Currently I am in the process of completely rebuilding my Exmo, after her five year layup in the garage.

I didn't build her to start with, but I've decided there are so many things "not right" that I'm doing the job over again myself.

 

Just got to the stage of fitting the anti-roll bar and need a few pointers and pictures, as to how the rear mounting brackets are normally fixed.

i.e. spacers, extra brackets, re-enforcement inside the engine bay, etc.

 

Cheers

 

John

[Mat-Moo]

From memory (and the videos) the fitting is pretty much where they where naturally on the sierra. However to be honest your better off putting tie-bars in place instead, MUCH nicer ride. Only thing is I can't remember if you should actually fit the roll bar (permanent) until the engine is in place as you need to move the engine trays around.

 

(PS race to you the SVA!)

[Guest John Williams]

Cheers Mat,

 

Mines on a SORN at the moment, so I'll try and get an MOT before your SVA instead.

It's going to be a long haul as it's right down to the chassis

 

I did have tie bars, but I'm going with the option of getting an appropriate stiffness

anti-roll bar manufactured eventually to replace this one, which is way too stiff, hence why tie-bars are popular.

Luckily I've a team of Stress Engineers I can call on to help me work it all out

 

As it stands, with the bar with the rear mountings/bushes it looks like I'm going to have to pad

out between the U brackets and the chassis with suitable width steel.

I was also wondering if people just bolted through the chassis or put some re-enforcement behind it in the bay.

 

I'm going to get along to the next Midlands meeting to chat about this and other things, when I've find out where and when it is.

 

John

[Snapperpaul]

My series 3 is similar and before i go the tie bar route i had the standard Sierra anti roll bar milled to half it's thickness along the bit in the middle that drops down.

I have not attached the roll bar mounts yet but intend to get all the geometry set and pull the roll bar back or forwards to help set the castor. I also like your idea of reinforcing where the bolts go through. They do go through 2 layers of metal already but an extra plate can't hurt.

[Peter Bell]

As Paul said, especially on the Exmo as you cant move a top wishbone backwards or forwards the roll bar dictates the castor angle so it has to be carefully fitted. I seem to remember that on the Sierra the roll bar fixings are higher than the bottom arms, so when it is fitted to the bottom of the Hood monocoque it is applying a load to the tca bushes, so the whole lot is under stress for starters. Is it possible to stick with the tie bars to give you the castor adjustment and fit a separate roll bar? if you are clever with the links you can make it quite adjustable.

Peter

[geoff shep]

Mine's a series II but similar I think as far as the anti-roll bar goes. I think he anti-roll bar would actually like to sit higher than underneath the engine bay but it's ok. The fitiing on the sierra is slightly dished so mounting the bush up against he floor tends to bend the floor panel. I put a mild steel spacer, chamfered off towards the bush, under each end of the bush bracket and a longer piece on top of the floor panel to provide some stiffness.

[Guest John Williams]

Cheers Geoff,

 

Thanks for the pics. Thought I might have to do something like that.

 

I feel a good metal bashing session in the garage coming on Friday afternoon

 

John