Bend it or heat it? Sway bar.

I finally got my hands on the rare unicorn ae86 factory sway bar. Only one endlink side needs bent outward about 1”. It’s a solid, 22mm bar. A fellow Toyota friend said he did his with a pipe bender, some internet stories say it’ll snap. 

Still, others say to heat it orange and pipe, but it will lose temperance. And then they explain it’ll need to be treated by some magician with an oven for the cost of well over what a custom bar costs. 

Whatever the route, I cannot afford to break this bar. They don’t grow on trees and the only other option is dropping 250$ on an aftermarket Cusco bar, which would still need bent. 

Backyard method would be to heat it til it can be bent, then quench it in a bucket of used engine oil. Whether that's a load of crap or not, I can't say.

Let me start by saying I know nothing about this subject. 

Let me tell you what I think. 

Heating it would be bad unless you can re-harden it. 

A slow steady load like a pipe bender may well crack the bar. It's designed to resist that kind of movement. You would have to take it past its elastic point for it to bend. That may be beyond it's breaking point. 

If it was me, I'd hit it with a BFH. A shock load doesn't require as much movement for the steel to take a set. Fasten it to something that won't move and smack the crap out of it. 

That's my gut feeling. Again I don't know so take this with a grain of salt. 

Where are you bending it?  If you're bending an arm, I wouldn't think it would be a problem as they don't/mostly don't twist.   If it'sin the middle section, don't.  I called once about heat-treating a bar I was going to cut and reweld and they needed to know exactly what metal it was.   They could not ascertain by looking at it. 

Any chance you could move the mount?  Or make a spacer?

Are you sure you need to actually move the end of the bar?  Could you do a bolt-on endlink with a spacer instead?  If you only have 1" to make up, that's a 1/2" spacer on each side, which seems reasonable.  If you can do it at the top and bottom of each endlink, that's 4x 1/4" spacers.

Yeah I agree with the end-link spacers, unless your problem is a chassis clearance issue not an end-link alignment one.

In reply to maschinenbau :

And if it's chassis clearance, it's hammer time.

This may be the time for a combination of bending methods. If you put some stress in the direction you want it to bend then whack it with a hammer, the combination of bending force and vibration might make it move without cracking. If you do heat it I agree with the oil quench, because that should result in a bar with high "toughness". Also, heat it as little as possible. 

Actually, oil quenching should make it brittle after being very hot.  That is how you harden a piece, not make it tough.

So the chassis mounts will not allow for any “side to side”’play. The endlink mount is where the bend needs to occur. Also, the sway bar end is horizontal, not vertical, like most. So a “spacer” would require some kinda strange doo-hickey. 

In reply to Trackmouse :

How long are the endlinks?  Do you have space for a jog/offset in the link itself?

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

That’s not a bad idea. I could try it. They are energy susp aftermarket links. So the bolt is easily replaced. My other thought was to drill new holes an inch inward (or 1/2” inward, each side.)

Any reason you couldn't use a beefy L bracket on the bar and a more conventional end link?  That might make shifting things over easier. 

wvumtnbkr said:

Actually, oil quenching should make it brittle after being very hot.  That is how you harden a piece, not make it tough.

 

It's been a long time since we did that experiment in college, but the quicker you cooled it, the more brittle it was. Water quench was very hard but brittle, oil quench was not quite as hard but much tougher, still air quench was less hard, and left in the oven to cool overnight was soft. We tested toughness with a big, swinging hammer thing. It seemed dangerous. 

In reply to snailmont5oh :

That’s what I’ve heard too. I was planning on heating it on car, so I can see how much to bend, and it’s then held in place. Instead of building a jig to hold it down and hoping I bend it enough and correctly. 

Then I’ll leave it on car to air cool. It’s the best I can do from a “grass roots” double car garage, no lift, I-make-less-than-six-figures kinda lifestyle. 

In reply to Trackmouse :

If I were doing that, I'd be trying to figure a wary to oil quench it, at least partially. Maybe wrap the area with oil-soaked rags, and dump more oil on it. I'm thinking that letting it air cool is a pretty sure way to make sure it has no temper. 

Also, less heat is probably better.  You might be able to bend it before it really even changes color much. 

Just do it, you'll be fine. 

I'd probably clamp it in a sturdy vise and cold bend it with a long pipe or rebar bender, but heating and bending will be fine too. Don't quench it or beat on it. 

Some thing like the old Caravan end link / rod with little bitty Tie rod looking ends instead of a Bolt

I have bent sway bars. But it involved getting hit by another car. Ok I am no help.