Those endlinks look like the ones I orderd off of McMaster Carr after I had trouble with Bills (couldn't get a wrench wedged in to torque down the nut). They will work fine with your current arms and I bet they would work fine with the new Gendron ones if you get them. I think the endlink looks broken because you don't have the bolt/nut that goes through that hole installed in the pic. With the endlinks where the bolt goes through the rod end, instead of being attached to it, I was able to get much more torque on it. Have not had clunking issues since I upgraded.

 

I'm not sure how in the world you could say that, when you really have no idea. I have a gendron bar that I believe is about 6 years old. The arms look pretty similar, though mine definitely have 6 holes. This may pre-date mine, before the s2000 guys started running 245's then 275's up front and really needing more stiffness to not lift the rear wheel. I saw the new arms in person last week and they are very different than my older arms.

I wouldn't draw any conclusion from hardware either (endlinks, collars)... that stuff is easily sourced and commonly replaced.

It may be a Gendron, but it would be a fairly old one. You could certainly add the 2 additional holes.

 

Also FWIW, my mount brackets look identical to that with the grease zerk and all, and I also have those 2 black sleeves that are on your bar between the mounts and silver clamps collars. I don't have the silver clamps, but the sleeves fit nicely on the other side of the mounts between the mount and arms.

 

I agree that is might be a Gendron bar. It looks an older version of the bar that I had back in the 2005 range when I was running A Stock.

 

I remember that set for sale, some guy had made two sets around the same time Bill's splined bars started showing up, had sold one of them previously. Not an exact copy but a similar design, IIRC. It's not like splined sway bars are rocket science. I'm sure someone could find the thread in search...

 

SoloVR6 (Pete Berta) made the arms around 2002, and had one set for sale recently (how I gathered the information).

My link

 

Thanks for the replies, Josh you were right that it's a copy. Neurotic, I wonder if Pete knows about the one I have now, will ask him. I showed this to Bill and he said it looks like someone took his bar and copied it. We compared the measurements of the center piece bar itself, and it seems the same, aside from small differences like brackets/clamps etc. But he said he never made a bar with arms that did not have lightening holes, and with only 4 adjustment positions, and based on the pictures, he wasn't sure of the length, but thought it looked heavier, may have less shock clearance, and may not adjust as stiff. He also also thought the endlinks I have require spacers/washers and only have about 15-17* of angularity, which could load the joints sideways and cause them to bend/break. He said his current updated teflon endlinks also include the studs, have 40* of angularity, and don't make noise or fail.

The seller said he will not refund/replace the sway bar kit just because I "think it is not correct, but don't actually know". This is after I explained the above to him, and that I am even willing to compromise by keeping the bar and only refunding my cost to change the arms/links, even though I paid for a complete authentic Gendron bar. Hopefully he will change his mind or paypal buyer protection can help when I escalate the dispute to a claim, with all the information I have from here and the manufacturer.

Edited: For clarity.

 

That did seem a little too good of a deal to be true.

By the way, I've changed Bill's endlinks for ones similar to the ones you have, 15 degree heim joints as opposed to studs. They're much, much easier and faster to get on/off and much faster to get un-preloaded than Bill's. You don't need 40 degrees of angularity.

The arms though, that sounds like something you should get changed for the real ones. I don't know though, how much lighter are they? Could you just drill another hole to adjust stiffer? And do you need the shock clearance?

 

I've replied to the email sent to me from legend4life, but I'll post here too. This is in fact a sway bar that I had made in 2001/2002. I did not make it to take any business away from Small Fortune Racing, I did not market the sway bar or did I have any desire to be in competition with SFR. There have been a few people who have made their own sway bars similar to SFR, the basic pieces are readily available. At the time I simply had access to talented people and fancy machinery. I also had access to a early Gendron bar. Which is why the measurements line up. I did that purely for the ability to share setup information. See when you're running against Jason Saini and he lets you borrow his sway bar to take measurements and freely shares his setup information you don't take that for granted. All I wanted to do is see if I could make my own and turns out I could. I made two just in case I messed up one, but since I didn't they both worked rather well. I was able to sell one set of arms to another local driver Aruch Poonsapaya. But I just sold him the arms, he found the other components on his own.

The reason there are only a few adjustment holes is because I made my arms short and left off the three softest adjustments. I pretty much only used the stiff 3 holes. Actually only ever used the stiffest hole. The ripples in the arms are from a 40 ton hydraulic press break. To get the bend in the arms, I didn't want to heat them with a torch to risk compromising strength, so we bent them with the aforementioned fancy machinery. So while you can call it a copy, it is unique. I know those arms were used with Penske shocks so you shouldn't have any clearance issues. Nor should there be any issues with the endlinks. Both Aruch and myself have used McMaster Kevlar lined endlinks for years with noise or failures.

I used the bar for two seasons. I sold the first bar when I sold my first S2000 in 2003. I had purchased my second S2000 just before Aruch sold his car in 2010. I swapped the arms with a used Gendron I had because I preferred to have the arms I made out of pride. I ran that bar for two years in street tire locally. I've since traded the S2000 for an E46 M3. I figured it would be easier to sell the sway bar as a whole as opposed to just pieces. I had advertised it as a copy and made no attempt to market it as a real Gendron. It sucks, and I'm kinda pissed, that it was sold to legend as a "real" Gendron cause I actually worked really hard on it. I've offered to buy the arms from legend if he is not happy with them. I'll clean them up and hang them in my trophy case and then I'll have them if I ever get another S2000.

 

That seems like a nice offer from VR6. I can understand being proud of something like that sway -- even if it is very similar to the Gendron bar and the base idea was not his.

If I were Legend, I would probably take you up on the offer to buy it from him, and I would then get a genuine Gendron sway bar. Probably add the bb mounts and get the rear too from the real Bill too while I was at it. The real bar is expensive, but worth the penny IMO. I just added a rear, and it is just as nice as the front.

With respect to whoever this mystery seller is, I would bet that there is legal recourse for Legend. Either a contracts or tort suit could be brought. Fraudulent misrepresentation comes to mind quickly, and if the seller happened to be a bona fide merchant, additional liability could attach for misrepresenting the product sold. Things to look at would be the express representation, implied representation, representations made in private messages, and customs associated with online forum sales.

I think most people just stick to being decent people / adequately representing whatever they are selling, but every now and then there is an aberration. All that would have been necessary here would to have stated "similar to Gendron sway bar" and "sold as-is" and that would be enough to put buyer on notice and avoid these situations. I feel for Legend because I know he is getting acclimated to the S2000, and this is a horrible way to do so.

Good luck, buddy. Hopefully a gentleman's agreement can be struck to avoid pursuing legal remedies, but I can forward you some names if it comes to that.