ea81 front sway bar

[Greybeard]

In the very near future I will be rebuilding my front suspension and installing a 5 speed, at that time I will be removing the sway bar for access to the transmission. While I have the sway bar off, I was thinking about fabricating a new bracket to move it forward about 1", and replacing the rubber bushings with urethane. Retaining the attaching points on what Subaru calls the "leading rods", effectively shortening the sway bar arms, that should make the sway bar act like a "stiffer" one. At least that's what I'm hoping for. I'm only looking for an improvement not turning my brat into a "canyon carver".

 

Has anyone ever tried this before? Are there any differences between ae81 sway bars? (Brat to wagon, wagon to sedan ETC.)

[GeneralDisorder]

It will make almost no difference to move the mounting points - the effect of it being harder to twist is largely offset by it not twisting as far the shorter you make the lever.

 

If you want to improve the sway characteristics of the EA81's, install an EA82 rear sway bar - all you have to do is cut the brackets from a set of EA82 rear trailing arms and weld them to the EA81 arms in the same posistions. You also have to shorten the sway bar ends by a couple inches but it doesn't affect the mounting geometry or it's effectiveness.

 

GD