Sway bars

GolfBavaria

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I run the Suspension Techniques anti-sway bars, F-28.5mm, R- 22mm, greased urethane bushings purchased from La Jolla Independent in 2011.
They keep the car pretty flat which is the goal.
This is exactly what I have on the Bavaria and for me they work great! One of the first things I do when restoring or "upgrading" an older BMW is upgrade the springs, bushings, and sway bars. 1 coil cut in the rear coil only (I believe it was just the rear, you will have to research that), if you like my stance then that's what you will get. Car rides great with the cut coil. I don't think you can do a 1/2 a coil cut. Carl probably won't recommend cutting a coil but it handles just fine. Look at Laguna Seca pic with me at hairpin with (4) passengers in the car. All I can say it we were doing some "spirited driving that day." Hung in there with the best of em'!

I will have some updated pictures any day now. Tucked rear bumper for a pre-'73 look (way they were intended before stupid impact bumper law in CA), should look really cool. See what you think.
 

autokunst

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I run the Suspension Techniques anti-sway bars, F-28.5mm, R- 22mm, greased urethane bushings purchased from La Jolla Independent in 2011.
They keep the car pretty flat which is the goal.
While I've put a fraction as many miles on my car compared to Andrew, it is running a 25.5mm front and I think 22mm rear. I agree, it kept the car flat and it was quite nice in my opinion.
 

CSBM5

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I ran the 28/22 bars on my E3 from 1980 until I sold it in 1994. They were fantastic and a huge improvement from the 22/19 setup I had prior.

For cars that were tracked/driven hard, Ray Korman made these small spacers that you would install above the front sway bar bracket -- they attached to the frame rail just above the bracket. Their point was to fill the gap between the top of the bracket and the frame rail and thus under extreme loads when the bracket would otherwise deflect upward, they would provide support to the bracket to prevent plastic deformation of the slot the bracket slips into. They worked great, and I never had an issue with the mounting slot.

Given the torsional spring rate varies with the 4th power of diameter for a solid bar, the increase in stiffness of the front 28mm bar compared to the stock 19mm bar is ~4.7 times...
 

bavbob

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Can I ask how you guys got these to fit in the front. The space for the bar, bushing and bracket is really tight so the bracket or something has to be modified.
 

autokunst

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Can I ask how you guys got these to fit in the front. The space for the bar, bushing and bracket is really tight so the bracket or something has to be modified.
IE offers new clips with their bars.

Mine are aftermarket as well - and are reinforced with a small square tube welded on. Not sure where they came from, but they are nice. The problem is, the weakest link is the tab and slot where it attaches to the subframe. I am reinforcing the slot in my subframe a bit.
20210306-reinforced clip 1.jpg
20210306-reinforced clip 2.jpg
 

adawil2002

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The bushings allow for the bigger bars in the stock brackets. These photos are when I installed them in 2011. I had a bracket break in the bolt side, had it welded back together last Fall.

IMG_3262.JPG
IMG_3263.JPG
IMG_3261.JPG
 

GolfBavaria

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E3AV

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Hi
When I got my 69 E3 2800 in 2017 it did not have a front sway bar. During restoration I bougt a 23mm bar that I kept in storage. Last week I tried fitting it to the car but something was not right.
Did a search on ETK and ofcourse there seems to be a difference in cars before and after 1973.
Mine should have a 19mm front bar.
Finding one is difficult. There is alot of 23mm bars out there but no 19mm.
So the question is, any interchangeable bars from e9’s or perhaps e12?
 

CSBM5

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I don't recall any dimensional differences between pre and post 1973 cars, but I do see the change to a 23mm front bar as of 09/1973 production (here in the USA that equates to 1974 model year cars and newer). The 23mm bar should fit...not sure why it wouldn't unless it's not for an E3. Back in the day, it was common to run 28mm front and 22mm rear bars from Suspension Techniques. My Bavaria (1972 3.0) came with just a 19mm front bar originally and no rear bar, and for a number of years I ran 22mm front and 19mm rear before going 28/22.
 

E3AV

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Hmm..
I see in the ETK that the tension struts and wishbones are different before and after 73
Tension struts:
31121112885 231mm -73
31121110798. 252mm. 73-

Left wishbone
31121104387 381mm -73
31121112011 402mm 73-

Right wishbone
31121104388 381mm -73
31121112012 402mm 73-

I took a look at the E9 ETK
and it says the e9 uses the same tension struts and wishbones for all production years.
The front axel support is the same for e3/e9 all production years.
The E9 also got a 23mm bar in 73 with no changes to the other parts involved
So that should mean that the E3 19mm pre 73 and the E9 17mm AND 23mm are interchangeable but not the E3 23mm?
 
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