The lower sleeve of my rear coilovers is designed for ITR suspension, so it has the 'eye' instead of the fork. The problem is, they are remote reservoir coilovers and the fitting and line for the reservoirs comes out of the bottom of the shock, running parallel to the LCA towards the center of the car, which inhibits the ability to run a rear sway bar.

I need to have this cut off, twisted 90* and welded on so I can run a rear sway bar without any interference.

Is there anything I should look out for when scouting a shop or questions I should ask? I'm weary about doing this because I know a lot of stress comes through this point in the suspension.

I drew this up in paint to show where the sway bar would interfere.

 

can't you just swap them from one side to the other to move the fitting to the outside?

 

i was told by a welding engineer that works at a naval ship yard that welding forged al isnt the greatest of ideas because of the resultant strenght reduction in the welded region and the HAZ

 

I can't reverse the fitting because it won't have room. the brakes are right there.

idk what 'haz' is, but i may be ill-informed. i know they're machined alu, but maybe not forged. all i know is that the portion i need rewelded was welded on at the factory.

 

oh if it was welded before then it should be ok. the title said forged so i assumed it was...
you can weld it as long as you can do so without affecting whats inside of the shock with heat.

 

That's what I'm worried about... I can't disassemble these without shipping them out to the manufacturer, and since these are prototypes, I'd rather not have to deal with it.

Should I find someone that specializes in custom fab for car stuff? trucks? cages? idk where to start looking.

 

it seems like you have 2 inches or so to the shock body so maybe you can weld it spot by spot? letting it cool between spot welds.

 

heat affected zpne, pretty much the most basic thin in welding.

run a stringer bead on a plate, look at the side you can pretty much see/gusstimate the haz.

i don't think those are forged. but there is fluid/oil in it that needs to be drained and cleaned.

making it "dirty aluminum" might not be the best thing to weld on. an it looks to be thin so SMAW is out of the question which usually does better with "crap" metals

 

cant you make/modify the swaybar? seems way easier, and way cheaper. swaybar geometry/mounting is pretty simple, and the fab work could be easier

 

If they are prototypes send them back and tell them they don't work right with the sway bar.

 

Exactly what I was thinking.

 

I would not touch the coilovers. Either play around with the sway bar, or get change coilovers. There's absolutely no sense in cutting/welding them, if you manage to weld them without having them explode in your face, you will probably weaken them in the process. Soooooo not worth it.

People bring me shocks to weld from time to time, and I always turn them away.

 

Ideally I want to get the ASR 32mm sway kit, but I don't know if it will clear.

I'd rather not cut and weld anything either. I just need a sway bar that is approximately 1" narrower on both sides and I'll be golden. I have no problem doing custom fab with the LCA to have the endlinks remain lined up correctly.

 

Its not the aluminum that's really the issue, its the high-pressure gas usually found in shocks. There's also all the seals and stuff, so even if you could have them repressurized properly, there's other obstacles.

As far as money goes, it would probably be cheaper to get a custom bar bent up. If you're in SoCal as your name suggests, you're probably an hour away from a metalworking/hotrod shop that has the ability to make one. Its just bending spring steel at precise angles, so it would probably be cheaper. If you gave them a stockish sway bar to copy, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

What's the thread diameter and pitch on the coilovers? You should be able to find a 90° fitting and make room for the RSB.

 

I'm not sure, but I could find out. I don't know what I would do after that, because I can't take off the lower sleeve; I can only move it up and down.

I think I'm gonna have ASR make me a custom one.

 

Just by looking at the picture if you had a 90 coming out of the coilover instead of the straight fittings, you'd have tons more clearance. You'll have to either cut the existing line and/or add different fittings for the connection, but I'd fell 100x safer changing line fittings than slicing up the forged Al.

 

id look into putting in a fitting that will allow you to use a banjo fitting. earls should have something.

 

Did they fix this for the production models? Seems like a major design flaw.

 

they're not in production yet. we're testing for a while to make sure they're bulletproof. the company's already been notified about the bottom sleeve, but i'll suggest to my friend the different fittings as well.

I talked to ASR and they'll make me a custom setup.
thanks for the input guys!

 

You definately dont want to weld on a pressurized cylinder, could be asking for a trip to the er, or worse.