tanabe front swaybar
 

Is the 25.4mm Tanabe Sustec FSB a good replacement for the stock front bar? I already have a Hotchkis RSB and intend to get revalved Bilsteins and GTWorx springs as well. Thanks.

Your question was hard to read lol. Is it a "good bang for your buck"? Absolutely. I've driven a couple Evo's on the track (buttonwillow/ laguna seca) with them and I'm convinced this is the sway bar that I'd love to put out front of my Evo as well. And for some credibilty, I also know out of the several Evo 8/9's that have won the solo2 SCCA series, they were using these sway bars as well. So they're doing something right ;)

I guess it depends on your setup and whether your talking about road course or autox. FWIW, I installed a Tanabe fsb and it was amazing. Totally worth the pita to install.

The only downside with any of these larger bars is that the little clearance you have is reduced even more underneath the car with the power steering line and the transfercase snout piece. Also, some sway bars have rings fitted or welded on to locate and center them on the car, this one doesn't. You center up as best you can and I assume it centers itself eventually because it is allowed to slide a bit Im guessing. I just tried centering my fsb with the bushings away from those little holes on the subframe as much as possible because it just seems like a better idea for the bushing to rest on as much of a solid piece vs over a hole. Its a weird design why they put those holes right next to where the sway bar bushings rest.

^ interesting. The stock sway bars, I believe, do not have these "centering" tabs neither? Correct? I couldn't see that being too much of an issue. Thanks for sharing your experience though TommiM, as usual.

The stock sway bars don't have a welded centering rings or anything like that. According to the Mitsu manual there are marking on there so when you mount it up you align that marking up the bushing or something like that.

The aftermarket bushings are usually wider than the oem one as well. This means that essentialy you can mount the bushing a little off center either way of the bracket. The oem bushing fits snug against the bracket one way, and even has a nipple to center itself. THis is how mitsu designed it so the sway bar can essentially be put on at a certain spot. With any aftermarket ones you get a little more leeway and no real defined location like oem.

Im not saying this is a bad or flawed design, hell it honestly may not even really matter. I guess I just pay too much attention to these little details sometimes. I just have an appreciaton for the fitment of an oem setup I guess.:beer:

Lol no I appreciate your input/ honesty TommiM. I do recall seeing white paint marks on the front and rear sway bars when I was installing ES polyurethane bushings. Too bad the ES (and I believe most/ if not all other bushing MFG'ers) bushings do not have those "nipples" to help with alignment/positioning.

Still getting the Tanabe S.B ! ;)

Hopefully sparky appreciates the input, surprised he hadn't chimed in yet

If you need to make sure the sway bar stays centered, you can buy split collars to go on the bar.

Make sure to upgrade the end links and end link mounting plate on the front bar. IIRC Cusco end link plates will give better angles and adjustability for the front bar. Also the rear bar endlinks help with bring the bar into play faster if they are beefier.

Here is a link to ones you can make yourself

http://www.cs.unm.edu/~donour/cars/evo_endlinks/

^ I love this! I think I already commented on this previously,,,, but well done!

sparky,

Pm or email Evolutionary....his extremely well built track car went thru several iterations of front bars. He can probably recommend the best one that will last.

I have a recollection that the Tanabe is a hollow bar that is welded together in the middle. This failed on someone's track car, not sure But i thought it was Evolutionary too.

Hope this helps

I'm curious about this as well....I'm trying to decide between the Tanabe or the Whiteline FSB

Evolutionary has recommended the Tanabe front sway bar in previous threads ;) that's where I found my recommendation lol I tend to believe what he says, he has a good track record, literally...

sorry for the confusion. I do remember one of the bars being hollow and someone having an issue with it. Bugs me i cant find it now though..

YES indeed i would go with EVOlutionary's experience...

For those not running swaybars with welded on collars to stop the bar from moving laterally :

http://www.mcmaster.com/#split-shaft-collars/=nu8sks

Those are in metric sizes.

Nice find. IIRC when I was messing around with my fsb I recall there not being a lot of room and Im not sure if these will fit. You may be able to get one on the passenger side, but I believe its a tighter fit in the drivers side. Also the swaybar sits fairly close to the subframe so not sure if these collars are going to fit without rubbing at the very least. That wouldn't be good.

I tried fitting some special inner lined clamps, but even those I didn't like the way they sat against the bushing. With the tanabe sway bar, from my experience, it can be a little tricky when you center it up to try and put some type of collars on the bushings. When you have it centered, it seems like the drivers side outer side of the bushing doesn't have a straight enough end to put a good clamp/collar on. If you use the inner side, then you run into the same issue with the passenger side. You may have to move it around and get adjustable endlinks to compensate. In the end I just gave up on it, and left it without a collar. Whatever performance gain was not worth the hassle to try to figure this thing out.

Interesting product from Whiteline. Called a "lateral lock" for the swaybar. Looks like another nice option as well.


http://www.whiteline.com.au/product_..._number=KLL122