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I’ve had a stock 1990 244 for my new-driver daughter for the past 1-1/2 years. After her recent incident losing rear end traction on a turn on a wet road, and my stumbling across Brickboard postings on sway bars (Fitz Fitzgerald #696227), I belatedly realize the car is unsafe. It is equipped with a *BIG* IPD rear sway bar, and an apparently stock front sway bar.
My local bone yard has an 81 242 turbo, with apparently intact sway bars (although the front seems to measure only 19mm diameter; where to measure?). My question: Is it a better option to replace the front sway bar with an IPD to match the rear, or to replace both with the 81 242 turbo sway bars?
Since I also need to replace a bent front control arm on the passenger side, and tired front struts, I’ll replace all four front bushings to boot. What is a good compromise for new-driver safety/ handling/ ride, and any recommendations for sway bar size/ bushing type (rubber/ poly) or struts (make or type)??
So many choices… Thanks for any help!
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Jim (90 244DL 165K miles)
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Yeah, if money were no issue, I'd get an IPD front bar. It'll make the car handle very nicely. Just to warn you though, the front sway bar bushings alone cost me 40 bucks from IPD a few years back, and I think they charge about 130 for just the bar. If you decide to go the boneyard route, I'd be willing to buy the rear bar off of you...I got just a front IPD bar cheap a few years back and have been using a turbo rear bar (21mm). I wouldn't mind upgrading to a 22 (or is it 25?)mm rear bar. If you're interested, email me at ngundy@hotmail.com. As for struts, I have KYB's on my '86 240DL sedan currently, along with stiffer springs. The fronts, which I just put in a few months ago, are wonderfully responsive, hold the car nicely, and are not at all "floaty". I like them a lot. The rears, which I replaced a few years ago, are a bit "wishy" already, which doesn't impress me. I might have to be replacing those soon. But for KYB's, the price is less than half of Bilstein, so whatever. With the control arm bushings, rubber will be fine. Don't worry about poly for those. good luck,
Nate Gundy
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'86 240DL sedan, 260K miles, M46, K cam, 25/21mm sways, 260 front and wagon rear springs; http://valvespringcompressor.weblogs.us/
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Turbo bars are supposed to be 23mm front, 21 mm rear on the sedans. (Turbo wagons had a rear 19mm, same as non-turbo sedan). Measure the thickness anywhere the bar has a circular cross-section. If your dtr's car has a 19mm front bar, my choice would be to install a matching, bone-stock, 19mm rear. That gets it back to Volvo's standard setup which could hardly be termed unsafe. This will also soften the ride somewhat. Yes, the car will lean more in turns, but that's not a bad way of telling the kid to ease off a little.
If shocks and struts are up to snuff, with a good set of tires, you can't ask for a much safer setup in that age of car.
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Bob (81-244GL B21F, 83-244DL B23F, 94-944 B230FD; plus grocery-getter Dodge minivan, MGB, and numerous old motorcycles)
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posted by
someone claiming to be Skip
on
Thu Feb 26 01:58 CST 2004 [ RELATED]
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The key here is balance. Either solution is good but changing the front bar to the proper match would give the best result and create less work. Although poly bushings are available for the front, they are a "race only" upgrade and will generate a lot of noise. OEM rubber is fine. Whatever you decide with the bar, consider poly bushings there. No downside and better response. A strut brace is a nice complement to the bars and steadies the handling.
Struts are personal choice. Boge is a great value for OEM performance. KYB is an inexpensive performance upgrade but too firm IMHO. Bilstein is the top of the linbe but $$$.
MANY years ago I added sway bars to my '72 Datsun 510. The car came with a spaghetti sized front bar and no rear. I added the rear bar and decided to try it out before finishing the front. In a 20 mph easy corner I almost looped the car and proceeded back to my garage at a reduced speed. Learn by doing.
Skip
'93 850GLT
'83 242TI Flathood
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FYI at this point, since your daughter's experience is an example of what theory predicts. IPD will not sell larger rear bars separately, by the way...
Increasing front bar size increases understeer, increasing rear bar size increases oversteer. More oversteer means exxaggerated reasonses to even minute steering input. So, increasing both tends to keep steering response characteristitics unchanged, which, for most manufacturers, is biased toward slight understeer - easier to control and thus, safer. My experience on my 245T with 25/25mm bars still seemed slghtly too "skittish" (even with HD Bilsteins), so I run rear tires with a larger footprint (195/65X15 front, 205/60X15 rear)to compensate - seems to work.
Jim Weiss
83 245T,
90 740T/M46/25mm bars,
90 760T/25mm front,18mm rear from a 960,
93 945T/25mm bars
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Don't pass up explaining to her what and why it happened.
I didn't understand the potential danger of careless rear-wheel drive turning on wet roads until I spun my back wheels and oversteered horribly into the middle lane of the road. This event occurred *with stock sway bars*. I have driven more cautiously in wet weather since.
I now have the ipd sways, and I don't really notice the oversteer. At least, I haven't pulled that little oversteer stunt again.
I would guess that she has a bigger problem with oversteer since the rear bar is huge and the front isn't. Fix the problem, sure, it'll improve handling and safety, but also explain to her the basics of suspension so she doesn't do it again while thinking her "new" sway bars make her invincible. Better yet, take her out somewhere safe and let her do all of the stuff that could cause an accident. I wish I could practice somewhere around where I live, but we've got a lot of over-zealous cops in my town, and I don't think my parents would enjoy me testing out the handling abilities of my car.
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'89 244 GL--25/22 ipd sways, Alpine head, Eclipse front speakers
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You can go either way, get an IPD front bar, or use both the Turbo bars.
They can be tough to get an exact measurement off, if you were using a ruler you could easily be off by a couple mm.
You really have to use a caliper and don't measure at any bends,otherwise the bar is uniform diameter.
The best choice I guess would be the front IPD bar, only have to replace 1 bar and you get the best handling.
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744-16v,745-16v,242Turbo.245DLT
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Grab the 23/21mm sway bars off the Turbo and stick in some Boge Turbo gas shock/struts. I've used them and both types of Bilsteins and the Boge Turbos provide the most bang for the buck. The Turbo sways will keep the body roll to a minimum and still keep safe handling traits. If the turbo only has a 19mm front bar either someone switched it or Volvo didn't upgrade the bars until '82. I can't ever remember seeing an '81 with turbo now that I think about it.
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Dave Shannon Spring Valley, California (San Diego area) '84-245 200K+ '84-245T 190K+ '88-240 190K+ '92 745Ti 150K '01 Jeep Wrangler Sahara 10K www.volvo2.homestead.com
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