Unfortunately, this happened today:



Pulled the swaybar out and found both mounts to be shagged:



I guess I'll order the FM mounts.

Anyone else here been through the same pain?

Cheers

 

Surprisingly not, though I've heard of this happening with the RB hollow bar. I'm running the solid FM sway and 949Racing endlinks though. Did you set the preload to zero? What suspension are you running?

 

I caught mine as it was beginning to happen. RB 1.25", semislick tyres. I had already bought the AWR mounts, so promptly I installed them.

 

I have a set on order now.

Suspension is just TEIN Super Street, swaybar is a Whiteline solid bar. Preload should have been zero if not very close, I purposely lowered it onto some ramps to tighten.

 

Did that happen mid-corner or anything? I would expect scary control issues if you suddenly lost that piece while in a tight corner somewhere.

 

Fortunately it happened at slow speed going up a steep drive at an angle. I took the car for a spin with the front bar removed and it felt really odd!

 

Wow that thing is destroyed! I just ordered a RB 1.125" bar and added the AWR mounts also after seeing those pics.

 

Sweet, can't wait until this happens to me. Does the reinforcement kit that RB sells do anything? Seems like it wouldn't prevent this failure mode.

 

Do you mean those blocks that get pressed up in there? I've had those with my 1.25" bar for a couple years of autocross and haven't had any issues yet... hoping to keep it that way.

 

I'm running the same setup; Brian Goodwin recommended the braces when I ordered the bar and so far I haven't had any issues.

It's the twisting of the bracket that causes it to shear. The aluminium blocks help absorb the weight/stress from the bottom of the bracket so that its not completely bourne by the bracket, reducing the stress on it.

 

Yeah those are what I'm talking about. I guess they are cheap insurance either way.

 

The bolts snap easily so use a wrench not an impact.

 

I have seen this issue over and over and over again. Especially on the old C-Stock autocross Miata's. A big front bar plus R-comps usually ends in this type of failure. The problem most people have with the Racing Beat bar is that the bushing are too tight and the bar binds, basically making it untwist-able and the mounts then fail. One possible fix was to shave the flat bottom of the bushing down so that when the C mounts are tightened the bar can move freely. I chose to put a large washer between the C mount and the sway bar mount on the car. Not sure if that is clear or not. Basically, you know you have the bushing loose enough when the bar is not attached to the control arms and you push the sway bar up, and the bar slowly drops down.

 

Well the next main problem is the lack of grease fittings on the mounts.. If there was a little hole drilled through the bushing and through the metal cover with a zerk fitting that gets lubed on regular basis this binding wouldn't occur. In saboteur's pics its clearly dry.

 

I had this happen last summer at some point. I had NO idea, I only figured it out when I was swapping onto the winter storage wheels and both brackets were fubared. I was running the stock '97 bar too. However the car did have a thick bar (I think RB, but not sure) on it for several years before I bought it. I suspect that weakened things and the mounts just finally went when I was driving it.

Luckily it's not a hard thing to put the new mounts in though. Just annoying that you need to pull the rad.

 

FM/AWR mounts are in the car now but talk about a PITA.

The NB lower radiator brackets had to be modified to clear these mounts. In addition to this, the mounts were slightly too narrow so had to really be "persuaded" into place.

Did you guys have these issues?

 

FYI, I've had an RB hollow bar and RB blocks on Theseus since 2006. No cracks, no issues.

 

This is a pretty crappy pic but see how much the radiator mount had to be modified:

 

Yup, ran into the exact same problems. Also stripped the threads on the frame putting one bolt into place. The plan is to drill through the frame and use a larger bolt.