Just wondering. Are sway bars heat treated in any way as to influance there performance? Or is there spring/torque just the result of the material itself.

I see a lot of the names here of people who have helped me out over the past year or so. I'm glad I was able to follow the vaccum

Steve
a.k.a. Redbird1

They are tempered like springs to retain their shape and to give the material the correct properties for the job.

For example, the bars you see on a tans am car that are home made and strait. Is this no more than a peice of round stock, or is it treated in some way?

For bent swaybars, some are bent hot and then retempered, others are bent cold (depends on the company).

I assume the straight tubular bars are just made from the appropriate material to begin with, but I don't know that.

The straight bars are (as far as I know) splined and then tempered (unless they are tempered and the splines are "rolled" like ARP fastners are). But either way, they are usually not "roll cage tubing" if that was the answer you were looking for.

But either way, they are usually not "roll cage tubing" if that was the answer you were looking for.


I didn't figure roll cage tubing but I was thinking maybe some kind of basic steel. Now having read what you guys have said, (temper) that makes sense.

So if you wanted to make your own bar, what kind of tempering? Any ideaa. I suppose a heat treat place may know.

If you want to make a bar, just put together something using pieces that were made for it. You can get them at any of the big race shops.

http://www.stockcarproducts.com/susp21a.htm

http://www.stockcarproducts.com/susp21.htm

http://www.stockcarproducts.com/susp22.htm

That's just one example. You aren't going to save any significant amount of money having one fabbed up then heat treated. I'd only do that if you were looking to make some custom shape that isn't available.

The old Herb Adams bars were 4340 steel (although he recommended 4140 also) . Heat treat the bar to Rockwell C-35.