Sway bar bracket - Vigor VS. 3Gee

[Bones]

Here's some photos for comparison

3Gee bracket is on the left and the Vigor bracket is on the right.


The Vigor bracket is made from 2 pieces of metal welded together, and has 3 bolt holes for mounting to the axel/frame. The side nearest the actual sway bar has one frame mount bolt hole, the other side of the bracket has 2 bolt holes, and the bottom of the 2 is the closest match to the the hole on that side of the 3Gee bracket. The holes on the Vigor bracket are about a half inch too far apart diagonally though and will need to be opened up a bit on the inside edges to mount in place of the stock 3Gee bracket.



This pic shows why the Vigor bushing strap doesn't fit on the 3Gee bracket. The 3Gee bracket is on the left again. The square hole for the bottom of the bushing strap appears to be about the same size on both the 3Gee and Vigor brackets, but it's bottom edge is about a half inch to three quarters of an inch closer to the bushing strap mounting bolt. Not enough room for the Vigor bushing strap to fit into.

Both brackets could probably be modified without too much hassle, but the 3Gee bracket doesn't seem quite as "robust", and opening up the square enough to accomodate the Vigor bushing strap would probably weaken it further. You'd have to cut almost to the bottom edge of the 3Gee bracket to get the Vigor bushing strap to fit on it.

It looks like the Vigor bracket could be made to fit the 3Gee frame/axel by just enlongating the single bolt hole and the bottom bolt hole on the other side, towards each other by about a quarter inch each. Even though our 3Geez only have 2 spots to bolt it up to the frame/axel, it still seems like this would be the simpler, sturdier way to modify a bracket to fit.

Of course there's always still the option to use the 3Gee bushing and bushing strap on the Vigor bar too but that's already been covered by the "How to" by Mushroom Toy.

[Bones]

I found a simpler way to make the Vigor brackets fit.

I held it on it's edge, against the concrete floor of my garage, and whacked it a couple times lightly with a really heavy sledgehammer.



The fit of the new sway bar is a little tight under the car considering the larger size of the bar/bushing/bushing strap and pinching the bracket makes it stick out from the frame/axel a little farther than normal too.



I'll keep an eye on the parts under there to make sure there's no rubbing.

[Bones]

Bump for new pics of the installed bar

Old Vs. New bar


Completed install