SHO Sway Bars / Suspension

Glossary and Quick Suspension Overview

Sway Bars

Sources of sway bars for the Taurus body:

Sway Bar Deflection Rates

What Size of Sway Bar Should I Have?

John Hrinsin's Table

    "Okay, I did a little more digging on the subject and according to what I found to get the "best balance" in the SHO you want to have the K factor of the FSB to be about half that of the RSB (at least for the ridge unit Gen III or a Gen II with SFC's and STB's).  So using the graph and equation off the V8SHO site, thanks to Sheriff Buford T. Justice, and some quick measurements of my FSB while still on my car (not 100% sure they are absolutely accurate), here's what I came up with."   (I've made two additions to the table by interpolation.)

    "Sway bar bushings material, sring rates, strut type, settings and mounts, degree of unibody stiffing, sub frame bushing material and differential type all have an effect on the above.  I think it's time for Dexter to get out of the laboratory and get on with some field and/or track testing. Deedee, don't touch my sway bar bushings!" {John Hrinsin}

    "The 20.6mm/26mm combo with the full TPR or poly bushing treatment on a open diff MTX, even with SFC and STB's, tends to be on the oversteer side of things, fun for autocross, maybe a handful on a road course.  Several people have reported that the 22mm FSB (from a SLO wagon) with the 26mm RSB combo is very neutral setup.  The same maybe said for the 24mm/28mm combo, but that just seems way too stiff IMHO." {John Hrinsin}

Differential Considerations

   "A SHO with 24/26 bars and either stock or Eibach springs is going to be a devoted, confirmed understeerer and, in open-diff form, will have trouble getting power to the ground in any corner more than medium-tight. ... Stiff front anti-roll bars and open-diff FWD do not mix.  The bar tends to lift the inside wheel, reducing grip and producing one-wheel peel." {John Miller}

    "Without a Quaife the 22/26 combo gets power down much better and is more neutral.  With a Quaife the 24/26 combination works okay, it's still got plenty of reassuring understeer but one-wheel peel won't kill all your speed any more.  The 20mm front bar ends up too tail-happy for anything but autocross, especially with a Quaife - a big dose of lift-throttle oversteer in Turn 9 at Laguna can make life interesting in a hurry." {John Miller}

    "Now, pesky inside wheel spin on corner exit . . . is why I think a  non-Quaiffe MTX car should use the 20.6/26 combo.  Tighten up on the front bar and you get load transfer to the outside wheel, letting the inside spin . . and spin, and spin." {John Holowczak}

Bushings Materials

Types of Bushings (Many!)

Subframe Bushings

    "As far as Aluminum goes, Aluminum subframe bushings are available to replace the factory rubber ones that wear out and cause the subframe to shift while turning the steering wheel. With the Al bushings, the turn in is much more precise." {Ian Fisher}

    {David ?} on corrosion: "The aluminum will not rust. It will corrode slightly in salty areas, but this should not pose a problem for these thick bushings. On some cars, there will be rust where the lower bushing half pushes through and seats against the subframe. A little bit of rubbing with some sand paper, steel wool, or a dremel pass will clean it right up and the bushing will slip right in."

Sway Bar Bushings (Front/Rear)

Sway Bar Endlinks (Front/Rear)

    "In 94, Ford updated their front sway bar endlinks with composite/plastic ones (the white ones). These are preferable over the older style metal ones that broke due to lack of flex (more specifically, I believe that the bushings and ball socket joints wore out quickly)." "If you have a 94-95, you should already have the newer FSB endlinks. If you don't have the original FSB endlinks, you could have anything on any year SHO. The newer ones are white and feel like a hard plastic. The older style are made of metal."{Ian Fisher}

    Rear sway bar endlinks have four bushings: an upper/lower pair at the top of the endlink to the strut tower, and an upper/lower pair at the bottom of the endlink to the sway bar.  "Rear endlinks on the Taurus/Sable are very puny and tend to flex and sometimes break. Some of us have upgraded using NAPA Mastercraft endlinks or the Addco (p/n#007). These are basically hardened bolts with a metal sleeve around the bolt and polyurethane bushings..." {Ian Fisher}

See my big writeup on Rear Sway Bar End Links. Includes what, where, and how much.

Strut Rod Bushings 

Front at Subframe

Front at Lower Control Arm

Rear Strut Rod to Body

Rear Strut Rod to Spindle

Springs and Struts

Further Suggestions of Items to Replace

    "Make sure your ball joints are in good shape. If not, replace them with the Moog greasable units (I just did mine today).When you replace the springs make sure to get new insulators for the front struts....this is often overlooked. Replace all the pinch bolts and make sure you have washers on hand for the strut assembly....I took mine off the old ones but it would be a cake walk if I didn't have to compress the old struts and take the hardware off them to transfer. ... FWIW, my car was way out of alingement after I did my full suspension. I had to drill out the 8 (four on each side) spot welds to get it back into spec. You might want to do the same."  {MeShoHorney on SHOForum}

What is "Good" Handling?

    "Someone on the MR2 list once pointed out that people's perception of a well balanced, decent handling car may vary. There are usually two types of people.
1. People who think that a car that corners flat and grips well in a curve is a car that handles well.
2. People who think that a car that does the above yet handles sudden transitions (usually side to side) without loss of control (ie evasive maneuvers or slaloming without having the car break loose)is a car that handles well.
I am not asking a question here, but thinking out loud..I think that what works well on an auto-x course may not work best on an open road course. Auto-x is normally filled with sudden transitions that allow for the back to get a little happy, but not too happy. Open track at higher speeds (from what I have seen) does not really allow for the back to break out much if at all. I would thinking that street driving is somewhere in between." {Ian Fisher}

    "Some people associate turn in crispness with "better handling", e.g. put a 24 mm sway bar on the front of their car and they will naturally say it handles better, even though its lost ultimate traction on say a 200 foot skidpad. Tranistional handling is certanly important, but that is much more the job of the shocks, and sometimes chassis stiffness.
    Going up from 155 to 200 lb/inch front springs, however, just took alot of lean out of the car, such that to me the car "handles better" even though max. grip on those 40 foot radius runway turbarounds is about the  same.  Slalomming just feels more contollable at the limt, probably through better road feel as well as less rapid body lean." {John Holowczak, in reply}

Sway Bar Testimonials