A Series Anti Roll Bar

[Shug]

Is the front one absolutely necessary?

Obviously they put it there for a reason, but with adjustable shocks, lowered springs and concrete bushes (well, polyurethane) is the roll bar gonna make that much of a difference?

Maybe a strange question, but if you've ever tried to fit new bushes to the lower suspension arm, you'll feel my pain! Plus, exhaust will go on without fettling.

Rear anti roll bar is on.

[rutts]

its a must or the suspension will just handgrenage. its also used as a control arm for location.

[Shug]

Bah, those bushes are an absolute nightmare! Damn you Opel!

[paul1393]

You can do away with the anti roll bar if you replace it with compression struts to keep the lower control arms in position.

I know this has been done before. The conversion also used a B series anti roll bar, links, bushes and drop brackets which are attached to the front chassis legs in front of the crossmember.

As far as I remember Ford Serria adjustable compression struts (supplied by Rally Design) were used for the conversion.

Paul.

Edited September 16, 2010 by paul1393

[lamchop77]

You can do away with the anti roll bar if you replace it with compression struts to keep the lower control arms in position.

I know this has been done before. The conversion also used a B series anti roll bar, links, bushes and drop brackets which are attached to the front chassis legs in front of the crossmember.

As far as I remember Ford Serria adjustable compression struts (supplied by Rally Design) were used for the conversion.

Paul.

The manta B/chevette anti roll bar can be got rid of altogether, in fact it gets rid of the mild understeer on the chevette/kadett. Did it on the grasser made a big difference on the rough stuff, you do need hard springs on the front though with adjustable shocks. I'm pretty sure that the a series is the same, way to check is if the anti roll bar has drop links it is not used as a location item therefore can be removed.

I remember an article where the centre of the anti roll bar was reduced in size to 12mm in the centre for tarmac use to reduce understeer.

HTH

Chris

[simon p]

You cannot remove the anti rollbar on an A Series unless you replace the control aspect of the Opel design with something else.

Paul (paul1393) is spot on, you MUST refit some kind on lower control arm/compression strut otherwise the who suspension assy will flap about.

The B Series/Chevette anti rollbar setup is just that, it controlls nothing else. Its a completey different design to the A Series.

If you choose to modify things like this, you must be aware of what everything does, how it designed and and what it's designed to do. You also need to understand how modifing one thing can affect another item. An incorrectly fitted engine and gearbox could just knock out a prop shaft UJ, get stuff like this wrong and it could kill you.

[Shug]

To be honest it's not something I'd choose to do anyway, I'm just exceptionally pissed off with trying to fit the anti roll bar bushes to the lower suspension arms. Didn't have a problem with any bush on the car except for these evil wee buggers.

Its the only thing in the whole project where I have really really lost patience and temper over!

I've destroyed high tensile bolts, a heavy duty clamp, and bent 5mm thick steel in half trying to get them in. Not looking forward to removing them from the car again cos I cant see how else the b******ing things will go in.

And everything was going so well too.

[Exclusive Opel]

Don't know if anything here is of any use. From a dealer manual but don't know if it's in the Haynes manual also.

[mantaray]

Yep I know what you meen. When I changed mine years ago, I took the lower control arm down to a local work shop and had them put the bushes in on thier press.