After waiting for what seems like eternity, the Saner bar was delivered to my office yesterday.

I think it's the 3rd generation Saner bar. I haven't had a chance to open the box yet but was wondering if anyone had installed this particular bar. If so, what impressions do you have on it?

Thanks in advance,

-Simon

 

Hi Simon, I'm glad you finally received your bar.

I think you'll likely get more response to this in the Racing & Competition forum so I'm going to take the liberty of moving it there.

J.P.

 

There's a third-generation Saner bar? I've had three now (!), and the one I got a few weeks ago doesn't look any different from the two second-generation bars I had except for the revised hardware (chassis mount spacer, endlink spacers).

Unless I'm missing something, all of the comments on this forum about how the bar performs should still be valid. As for how the new endlink spacers will hold up, that's TBD since very few people have them, but personally I think they'll eventually still deform to some extent.

Steve
- now running a custom-modified Saner bar with completely different spacer-less endlinks

 

The spacers didn't do anything for me. If I can ever get in to see Messley, maybe he can finally determine once and for all what the hell is wrong with this bar.

 

Steve, are you sharing your modifications? I think the Saner needs to be bent differently. The ends should extend closer to the lower a-frame link mounting points. This would reduce the angles and stresses on the end links. Either that, or a totally different end link is needed. I know on mine, I now need to replace the end links as they have excessive play between the ball and socket on all four ends.

 

Sure -- there's not much to them.

I'm now using the McMaster-Carr endlinks which are also used on modified Gendron bars. The McMaster endlinks have an integrated standoff, so you don't need to use endlink spacers like you do with the endlinks that come with the bar. The McMaster units also have a wider range of swivel than the spacer-equipped Saner units; they deal comfortably with the angle between the A-arm bracket and the bar, whereas I've bent more than my fair share of Saner's endlinks. Last but not least, the McMaster endlinks are lower-profile than the Saner-and-spacer combo, so while the former would interfere with my shocks if the bar wasn't perfectly centered, the McMaster units fit with space to spare.

The catch is that the stud on the McMaster endlinks is too short to fit through the Saner bar -- I addressed this by having the bar ends machined down to about half of their original thickness. While the machinist was doing that, I also had him drill a fourth, stiffer adjustment hole in the bar.

The catch is that, if you don't have your own machine shop, doing all of this costs more than the bar itself did originally -- figure four hours of machining, plus around $75 for the endlinks. I'm happy with the result, though.

I'll try to remember to take pictures while I'm under the car on Sunday.

Steve

 

Steve, do any threads come through without machining the bar? If so how many?

Also, did you consider using the units with the 7/16ths diameter stud? I see the stud is a bit longer on the larger units. I assume you may have to drill a larger hole in the saner bar to fit it through, but that would be a lot easier than machining the side of the bar. Of course, the 7/16 unit is also longer overall, so that may be a problem, but it seems it would be fairly easy to just cut them down a bit. Your thoughts?

 

So it looks like I'll soon have problems with the endlinks. How soon?

 

there is an easy solution to the endlinks, although you lose the intergrated standoff.

I just screwed the brass end into the female end of the other... kinda backwards. This had the effect of shortening the endlink (good, they were too long otherwise) and putting the longer side through the bar (good, the Gendron bar I have is thick!)

 

[QUOTE=Legal Bill,Aug 23 2004, 10:46 AM]Steve, do any threads come through without machining the bar?