Remember before I was complaining about the massive oversteer? Well after I cut my springs I noticed I developed understeer. Today I went and moved the sway bar forward. It basically required taking down the whole system and reinstalling from scratch.

I have battle wounds to boot. My friend was supporting the sway bar, and then I guess he got lazy and stopped. I thought he was still supporting it and when I got the last screw out the 20lb bar fell on my eye *ouch*.

Anyways I moved it to just about 1/4" behind the very front of the rear beam. I took it out for a spin and I think I have achieved the impossible. My car is 100% neutral. I've NEVER in my life driven a car that is as confident as my Maxima. Both outside tires squeal at the same exact time. The car goes around the corners so fast now.

My friend who was riding shotgun was in awe.

Some of you So Cal guys should drive my car sometime and let me know what you think. With the lower center of gravity, strut bar, and perfectly positioned rear sway bar, this car has the best street setup I can imagine.

For the track I might push the sway up a little more to invoke a tad bit of oversteer, but for street driving, and unsmooth road conditions this combo is PERFECT.

 

One more thing.

Basically I moved it about 1/2" forward. Dennis you remember where it was. It was right in front of the back lip of the multibeam. Now it's just behind the front lip of the multibeam.

 

Cool...I think mine is in need of a readjustment also. I got sick again today though...so the sway bar adjustment will have to wait for a while.

 

Yeah now I think all the money I spent on Stillen crap is worth it.

 

Brian, which holes in the bar are you using? The ones shown in the Stillen instructions are the 3rd and 5th from the front. The reason I ask is that I'd like to move mine forward also but if I did the forward clamp would not fit over one of the small brackets on the trailing arm. I think that bracket is the ABS wire or such but it leaves me with the bar back towards the rear of the axle as yours was before you moved it.

 

I've had problems with my Stillen rear stabilizer bar too...

My issue is that the bar running along below the beam axle actually comes in contact with the beam axle -- especially when coming down off of driveways at an angle or with big dips in the road...

The clearance is pretty small... I wish I could angle the back of the bar down more towards the ground but since there are two mounting bolts on each side, this makes angling the bar impossible because of the tight tolerances on the thru-holes in the bar and bar clamps...

I think the trailing arms are not exactly parallel with side of the car on the Maxima -- I think they slant a little bit -- I think when you positioned the bar in your current orientation, the width between the left and right trailing arm most closely matched the natural width of the stabilizer bar -- You can move the bar more forward or rearward but you have to flex the front arms of the bar a little --

My guess is if you moved the bar even more forward than what you did, your rear would tighten up even more -- Or if you moved further rearward, the rear would tighten as well...

I just hope to find a bar that is clearanced properly from the beam axle once installed -- I think I only have about 1/8" spacing to the axle --- I'd like to have at least a full inch spacing...

HOw much spacing do you all have with the Stillen bar to the beam axle??? Maybe the mount holes on my bar are not positioned right??? I only asked this cause Stillen did mess up the front mounting bolts if you want to set the bar up in the "soft" setting --- the mount holes were too small for the bolts...

To Brain V:

You mentioned that you cut more of your rear spring than the front -- so I guess you cut out more of the rear suspension travel as well -- Which I think is naturally less than the front end to begin with anyway... If this is true, then dropping the car evenly from front to rear reduces the rear travel by a greater percentage than the front -- making the rear more relatively firmer than the front --- which of course tends to shift the balance more from understeer to oversteer side ---

I think a lot of front wheel drive -- therefore front heavy -- cars are set up with this variance in suspension travel -- to make them understeer less than they normally would if the suspension travel was the same on both sides...
Which makes tuning more difficult --
Just where does that bar need to be on the trailing arms? --- just what height does the suspension have to be? And what happens when you throw a couple pasengers in the back??? Because with short travel, small adjustments make bigger differences...

It might just be more beneficial to find a place where the ride of the rear end feels comfortable on the road and then leave it alone --- and only tune the balance by adjusting the front end --

 

Is the Addco bar not able to do this? Move back and forth? Or could you put in the Addco and mount it up 1/4" like Brian described? This is my next mod and am curious which to get, thanks.

 

I cut 1.25 coils in the front and 2 in the back. There are only 5 coils on the front and like 12+ on the back. So technically I cut more off of the front springs.

I'm using the furthurest forward hole and the second to furthest back.

Before I was using the furthest forward and furthest back hole.

 

- First off, the Addco bar is not adjustable. The Stillen is. You want to buy the Stillen even though it costs more.

- Second. Congratulations on the newly neutral car. Just to confirm (since this has been discussed so often) pushing the RSB up towards the front of the car will promote understeer and moving the bar down towards the rear will result in oversteer. Correct?
- Also, don't forget that the handling could change as speeds increase. You could end up with tail-happiness at higher speeds or vice versa. If you're happy with it now, chances are that it won't wig out on you when you up it to highway velocities. But, just be forewarned that this could still happen.

 

Mounting the RSB more towards the front of the car will induce oversteer.

Mounting the RSB more towards the rear of the car will induce understeer.