So I'm tooling around on the car, changing the oil pan, and I notice that the Front Sway bar is actually pushing on the right front control arm. Looked at some pictures, and it looks like my front sway bar is too low. I have adjustable endlinks, but the shortest they go is stock. I'm lowered, and usually I thought you wanted to lengthen the endlinks when you drop--I'm wondering if the endlink attachment point on the KW V2's is shorter to begin with. I shortened the endlinks, and the bar is just barely off the control arms--I'm going to drop the car off the jackstands, and see how it's sitting, but at least from other people's pictures of their cars on lifts, it looks like the endlinks are too long. So for anyone else out there with KW V2's, what have you done with endlinks?
Generally you want to avoid preload on the swaybar....meaning at normal ride height (weight on the wheels) the endlink should just line up with the hold in the swaybar. Were you looking at the car with one end jacked up? - drew
No, it was on all four jacks, not 100% level but close. I'll put the wheels back on and drop it tomorrow and recheck the orientation, and make sure there's no preload. With the car up, the end of the sway bar is sitting much lower than what I'd expect, it was actually hitting the control arms. Shortening up the endlinks gave a little space between the end of the swaybar and the control arm, but not much.
Slight contact with both wheels at full droop is not a problem. If both wheels are catching air while in operation the potential for a problem will occur when the car hits the ground again. When shortening the front links, be sure there is no contact with the driveshaft under full compression at both ends of wheel lock. Since suspension postions are dynamic it may be necessary to look for contact marks after the fact. You are correct about when lowering the front links should be lengthened to compensate, that is if the attachment point is at the same location as stock, and the goal is not corner balancing.
keeping the front wheels on the ground when driving is sound advice, especially when your wife is in the car
Dropped it after shortening the links a bit, and it looks fine, I'll double check with the wheels locked, thanks Keith. Sigh of relief. It'll get me through the rest of the year. Funny you posted, I was thinking about redoing the supension and going the AST/hypercoil/Vorschlag route next spring, we'll see, depends on how much money I have to drop into the car this winter.
As an owner of the A/H/V setup, i highly suggest it. Also, a very good friend of mine is making the move from KW V2s to the A/Swift/Vorshlag setup currently. It only took a ride of two in my car to convince him