This isn't really the most performance oriented item, but I felt since it's for Accord's it can go in this forum.

I'm a mechanical engineering student, so I have access to our on campus undergraduate machine shop. A few years ago, I installed a junkyard EX Accord rear sway bar and noticed difference in grip , so I thought I'd try another cheap DIY project.

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=446324 Sway Bar upgrade

I'm also on our FSAE team, so there's a lot of scrap metal laying around that I thought I would take advantage of.

Materials
-- 28.125" 4130 chrome moly tube. OD of 3/4" with wall thickness of 0.095". (free)
-- 6" of 4130 chrome moly round bar. OD of 1". (free)
-- 7/16"-20 tie rod ends with spherical bearing. ($15 from http://www.mcmaster.com)
one right hand thread, one left hand thread.
-- 7/16 -20 right hand and left hand nuts. ($1.70 total from Ace Hardware)

Tools
-- Lathe
-- Boring Bar
-- Center Drill
-- 7/16-20 right hand and left hand taps
-- W size drill bit
-- M10 -1.25 right hand tap ( The bolts that came with the brackets were metric.)
-- welder
-- spray paint (I used DupliColor gun metal wheel paint)

You might notice that I haven't mentioned anything about the brackets. Well, I was very fortunate. My roomate's girlfriend drive's a 96 accord, and bought a cheap ebay rear strut tower brace a few years ago, which didn't fit. I can only assume that it didn't use spherical bearings in the rod ends, and the brackets weren't aligned, thus not allowing you to connect the two shock towers. So I paid her $10 for the brackets. Lucky me.

Anyway, on to the pictures. I took some measurements, and modelled it in Pro Engineer. I'm a dork.

The spherical bearing insert is tapped to have the same threads as the bracket bolt. I was being nitpicky here, but I didn't like the idea of having the force transmitted through the strut tower bar being only on the threads of the bolt.



This is the 4130 round bar getting turned down for the tube inserts. I don't have any pictures for the spherical bearing inserts.


Center Drill.



Drilling out tube insert.


Tapping the tube insert.


Using a micrometer to make sure the outside diameter will slip fit into the tube.


Pressing the spherical bearing inserts into the spherical bearing. I made them 1/1000 of an inch over so it would be an easy press fit.




Tube inserts welded into tube.



Tada. Final product after two thin coats of paint.




Overall, the whole thing cost me under $20. Ignore the shitty amp please.


Modified by paul9luap at 8:20 PM 3/4/2006

 

Nice work

 

Play on playa, play on! Very, very nice!

 

thats cool man, i wish i could do some stuff like that

 

Very nice !!!to bad i have a sub box and a wall in my rear

 

awesome work! very cool, im sure you could definatley make a few extra bucks if you made a few c-pillar bars for 5g accords too

 

Very nice work. Would you mind making a bar for a '95 wagon? They don't seem to make a rear strut bar for wagons....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by momstaxi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">awesome work! very cool, im sure you could definatley make a few extra bucks if you made a few c-pillar bars for 5g accords too</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'll have to see if I can make one. Spring Break is in a week so I'll have some free time then.

I wouldn't be able to make them for people, due to time constraints. But if I am able to make one for my car that fits well, I'll post information on how to do a DIY one.

 

awesome work man, but cou;dnt u just buy a brand new bar off ebay with endlinks and all attached for like 20 bucks.

your bar might be solid as a brick, but your still using cheesy brackets. might as well fab up soem beefier brackets, to put that bar to good use.

not hating, cuz i love DIY,

 

Outstanding quality control. Love those welds.

Did you use this as a school project?

Nice job.

 

Wow, looks nice and professional

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RotaryBzzzz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Outstanding quality control. Love those welds.

Did you use this as a school project?

Nice job. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Nope, I just did it in my spare time. I'm in the machine shop at least 2-3 days a week for my senior design class, so I thought I'd also have a side project.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Eddiebx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">awesome work man, but cou;dnt u just buy a brand new bar off ebay with endlinks and all attached for like 20 bucks.

your bar might be solid as a brick, but your still using cheesy brackets. might as well fab up soem beefier brackets, to put that bar to good use.

not hating, cuz i love DIY, </TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree with you completely. I'm not a fan of the brackets that I was able to get, but they were only $10. I had thought about making my own, but to do it right I would want to make them on a CNC.

 

I'm not sure why you would have to weld anything on that.... just assemble it without weling the caps to the bar or use a metal epoxy like WB weld.

 

Nicely done man!!! It looks beautiful and very professional...
...so... are you gonna make some more for us or what?!... well... at least you already have one customer waiting right here!!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by YeuEmMaiMai &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm not sure why you would have to weld anything on that.... just assemble it without weling the caps to the bar or use a metal epoxy like WB weld.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I just followed the same general procedure that our FSAE team uses to make our A arms and tie rods.

To avoid welding, you could also just buy a thicker wall tubed so that the inner diameter is smaller than what is required to tap the threads for the rod end. Then, just drill it out to the required diameter for the tap.