Front swaybar bracket public service announcement

Hey guys,

If you run a big front bar and sticky tires, check your front swaybar brackets every time you've got your wheels off. You might thank yourself - these pieces are notoriously weak, and if you autocross with a BFB and R comps, chances are you'll rip the mounts sooner or later. Be especially sure to check the inside leg of the mount. This is where mine tore, and where Jon's tore as well... both times.

lugnutjon and I were doing some workon the cars this past weekend, and he was trying to chase down a noise in the front end. Guess what? The new OEM swaybar mounts that he had welded in 18 months ago - to replace the original mounts that he'd torn autocrossing - were toast. One was torn all the way through on the inside, and the other had pulled away from the tack welds.

This time he coughed up the $175 for the Mazdacomp mounts. I would highly recommend them to anyone autocrossing or tracking a car with R tires and a big front bar.

Isn't this an issue only with NB Miatas? IIRC the NA Miatas do not have this problem.

altiain, I've heard somewhere -- I hope I'm wrong -- that in order to remain in stock class in autocross you cannot replace/enhance/strengthen these swaybar mounts until they break. In other words, you can fix them once they've broken, but you can't pro-actively strengthen them before they break. Is this correct? I'd like to install Mazdacomp Mounts as a preventative measure, since I do have a bigger front bar and I do autocross.

I don't think that's right. The SCCA issued a clarfication just before Nationals last year (check June, July, or August '04 FastTracks) that stated that swaybar mounting brackets were considered part of the swaybar, not part of the frame, and therefore the front mounts could be replaced in Stock, just like the front bar, bushings, and endlinks could already be replaced.

Prior to that clarification, the argument was that the bracket was welded to the frame and was therefore part of the frame. Technically, any Miata that had broken swaybar brackets prior to that time was an illegal car in Stock, even if the owner had identical OEM mounts welded to the frame to replace the stock ones. Can't tamper with the frame in any way in Stock, even if it is to re-weld something that has broken. The clarification was to make this common practice legal (another clarification was issued at the same time making re-welding of the upper control arm attachment brackets to the frame on S2000s - a known weak point - legal).

Road racing has not been an issue you guys have with auto crossing on stressing the sway bar mounts. I would think it would be a similar issue, but none of us have ever broke the brace on any model. Could it use more bracing? Sure and the way I drive through Rattle Snake they should have broken by now. It surprises me how much more stress you guys put on the car.

Gary

Yeah, but you roadies aren't nearly as hard on your cars as us cone-crushers. :tongue:

Seriously though, while we (meaning us autocrossers) are traveling at slower speeds, I bet the extremely tight turns we have to make actually put higher stresses on those mounts.

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Originally Posted by shuhart1

Road racing has not been an issue you guys have with auto crossing on stressing the sway bar mounts. I would think it would be a similar issue, but none of us have ever broke the brace on any model. Could it use more bracing? Sure and the way I drive through Rattle Snake they should have broken by now. It surprises me how much more stress you guys put on the car.

Gary

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I guess you just haven't pushed your car to it limits yet. Better get back out to the track and push that beast a little harder! ;)

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Originally Posted by shuhart1

It surprises me how much more stress you guys put on the car.

Gary

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Simple answer to that - transitions. A typical road course doesn't have many transitional elements (slaloms, offsets, etc.) Even Rattlesnake is mild - in a transitional sense - compared to a typical S2k event high-speed slalom.

The transitional loads, coupled with the higher transitional g-loads that autocrossers see (I've seen momentary load spikes of over 1.3gs on R compounds in my C Stock car on every run I've ever datalogged) - are what destroys the swaybar mounting brackets. Think about what happens to that bar in a slalom - it gets loaded beyond its design limits one way, then that load is completely reversed, and it is loaded beyond the design limits in the other direction. Repeat this loading cycle five or six or seven times in rapid succession, two or three times per run, over the course of hundreds of runs per season.

It's amazing that the wimpy stock brackets hold up as long as they typically do. :wink:

I agree Iain. What does the MS bracket look like? Is this at the frame or at the A arm? I remember when someonw made a beefy frame replacement, I think Moss sells it because we had an issue with our intercooler setup. Customer made it work, but it required cutting a little. Do you see anything TDR could do to improve on this that might be marketable?

Gary

Gary,

There are pictures of the Mazdacomp swaybar mounts in this thread. They mount to he unibody frame, in replace of the OEM U-shaped bracket that hangs down from the frame, which the swaybar bushings bolt to.

It's a good piece, but it does require some fabrication to install. If I were re-designing them, I think I could make some improvements to the Mazdacomp piece to ease installation and potentially avoid installation conflicts on intercooled applications - drop me a PM if you want to discuss this further.

Anyone want to answer my question or did I fart in an alevator and everyone is pissed off at me?

Is this an NB only problem or are NA Miata affected as well?

Phew... what's that smell???

The NA Miatas have front swaybar mounts that are made of actual metal. On the NB, said mounts are made out of something between aluminum foil and sheet metal. The cracking/tearing problem doesn't seem to appear on the NAs.

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Originally Posted by black roadster

...did I fart in an elevator...

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http://www.dallasimports.net/forums/...lt/stinker.gif

Actually, I was wondering the same...

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Originally Posted by Treibenschnell

http://www.dallasimports.net/forums/...lt/stinker.gif

Actually, I was wondering the same...

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:nutkick: