Paul, I'm doing well. Been super busy with the team. This last week has been fairly laid back. Off to the wrong coast in a couple days for VIR. How have you been?

 

Much of the same between Dezod, my daughter, personal stuff and side projects my days never end.

Oh, words from Jeff at Progress:

The bushing bracket is a stout one. It is running in our new tooling, and is a
well-engineered part. We have sold 10s of thousands of them (really). The
mounting bolt spacing is close, so we need use this smaller "series" bracket.
The bar (25mm) is very large for this bracket, so the poly bushing is thin. This
means the poly is not forgiving, or any "cushion" for the bar loads. Dan, you
have MANY race miles on this setup, and it will work fine if properly installed.
Expect the 25mm bushing life to be shorter than our "Progress" 22mm bar setup.

Installation notes, all these are all important:

1) The brackets must be tight. If they move, they will fatigue and fail. This
is true of this bracket or any other.

2) After the bar is mounted to the chassis, in lubricated bushings and tightened,
the bar must be cycled (the end links must NOT be attached yet). The bar MUST move
freely in the bushings, with only two fingers applying force. If the bar is
tighter than this, the brackets must be loosened and a flat washer placed between
the bracket tab and the unibody (frame), with the mounting bolt going through the
washer. Retighten and test it again with two fingers, and shim until the bar
moves freely. If it binds in the bushings, too much load goes into the brackets.
If the bar binds, it also will be noisy and make bushing squeeks because
over-compressing the bushings forces the lube out, and the bushing runs dry
(noisy).

3) The end link length and end link spacers must be correct for the chosen ride
height, or the bar MAY contact the control arm. This needs to be checked as well,
and adjusted. If the bar contacts any other link, a bind results, and the load is
forced to the bushing brackets. Check this at ride height with the vehicle
supported by the tires (the suspension must loaded).


Best Regards,
Jeff

 

Thanks for the follow up Paul. This is one step I failed to do and am sure nearly everyone else did not do as well because it was never mention in any past posts on this thread with questions regarding install. Placing the washer between the bracket and unibody should fix the issue with the bushing stopper on the rsb rubbing against the bracket mounting point. Although I didn't place washer between the bracket and mounting point, the bar was very well greased and could easily be moved. Placing washers will defintely help the bar move even more freely. I will do this immediately as i'm sure everyone else will need to as well.

 

not sure if i did that the first time, but i know i did the install right the second time, holding up so far and no complaints, but im still inspecting it daily for my own peace of mind

 

I'm not fully understanding this. There are two sides of the bracket, do we put a washer on each side? Or just one on the side with the bolt?

Also, am I reading correctly that if the bar does not sqeak, the bar is not binding? Therefore the installation was probably done correctly, and the washers don't have to be added?

 

I would place the washers on both sides to keep the bracket square. Using just one could result in bending pressure on mounting tabs.

 

Correct.

 

The endlinks started making noise on my car, so I took it out and put the stock endlinks on. It seem to solved the problem but I'm not sure if it's a good idea.

 

Probably not...
I realized the noises will always be there. Very noisy (race) endlinks. I also found the bushings need to be re-lubed frequently. I think the sound/chatter comes from the ball/joint (mine has a little play) and bolt since it fits a bit loose inside the metal bushing and endlink... I'm on the medium setting and will run it this way until something breaks.

 

@SR059

did you notice any difference in handling? if i remember right, these endlinks were designed for these specific sway bars..? when i had mine, no matter how much or what kind of lube i used on those damn bushings and every contact point, this sway bar always squeaked. plus baltimore roads make it that more of an unpleasant experience, even when set on the lowest setting =/

although, i do miss the solid feeling of cutting through corners without a sweat!

 

I know those endlinks were design for that sway bar, but it has stopped making the weird noise after i switch it back to the stock one. the bushing did make noise one in awhile... have to keep lube them

 

Just lube the heim ends. Move them around in your hand and wipe the exposed portion of the ball with white lithium grease. They will stop squeaking and be quiet as a mouse. Mine started to squeak a bit this spring, but they needed to be lubed.

I just switched to using white teflon plumbers tape on my sway instead of regreasing this spring. A lot of people have used it for years and have found it outlasted grease by large amount. If it wears out faster, no big deal... just try the yellow gas pipe plumbers tape (its thicker) or just go back to greasing them.

 

Not a good idea. Stock are not designed to handle the load difference this bar offers.

EXACTLY! ^^^

 

I just came back from Japan and I still have mine BNIB. Unfortunately, long story short, I won't have a tC to throw this on. I've seriously been following this in preperation to get it on but oh well.

 

I was wondering how these would turn out. I never liked the yellow. I was glad I was able to get it in the grey.

 

How? Dan commissioned them to make 50 of these bars to his specs? That was all that where produced.

 

hmmmm..i had my 25mm bar from progress about 3 months before the yellows came out...

 

Gotcher

 

You can likely still get just about any size you want through Progress if you ask them for it and pay them to make it. But they did not make an off the shelf 25mm bar before this came out (for the tC). Their off the shelf unit for this car was about the same size and stiffness as a TRD bar I believe, only with one more adjustment hole.

 

Progress offers a 22mm bar with 3 adjustment points as the shelf stocking unit.

Progress usually wants BIG $ for a single 25mm bar OR large quanties to make it.

If there is enough demand, we can re-run another batch of 25mm.