The reason for your bracket failure is incorrect installation, not incorrect design. You have not completely installed the Hotchkis bracket system properly. I can see you left out two very important pieces that in-fact support the bracket that is bending and breaking.
We’ve run this sway bar (which is some 5 lbs. lighter than stock) for a full racing season including practice every other week or so and road mileage to and from events. We also installed ours when they first came out, no problems.
It also appears (not completely sure) but you have another very important support bolt missing from the forward bracket at the top. Or maybe you just didn’t have it in yet, but your installation of the bracket system is for sure incorrect and the reason for your bracket failure.
BTW- The deformation around the bolt hole is in-fact a warning sign that way too much load is being transferred to the bracket at that bolt location, not metal that’s too soft. That isn’t happening when you torque the bolts down, its happening when you drive the car. The bracket is being twisted apart because the piece that it lays in as a guide and support has not been installed behind it.
I can see from the first photo posted in this thread it was wrong from the start, all you did was put the new piece back in the same way you did the job the first time.
I’ll take a photo of a correct, complete installation of the bracket system tomorrow and send to someone that can post an image.
All right, one hour later and I've remounted the swaybar correctly this time. Luckily I was able to recover the bracket pieces before they got bent up again. I'd overlooked the fact that I was supposed to re-use part of the factory bracket. Boy do I feel stupid. Must read the instructions more carefully next time! ops:
Cool Tam, you’re certainly welcome. I hadn’t been able to follow-up on threads lately and was catching up on some reading late last night when I saw your additional problems, saw the pics and said OMG! :shock:
We’ve raced with this bar all season, no problems, you should be O.K. from here on out. 8)
Hotchkis rear swaybar quick-review
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