I got some solid sway bars from a 97 donor car i found and I'd like to use them, however the front bar is said to be incompatible with the earlier chassis. I remember asking about it before and was told that I could drill a new hole in the end of the bar to fit it, but i can no longer find that post. I also have FM adjustable end links. Has anyone done this before? Should I try and use this or just get a new bar for my chassis year? Also I'm curious on thoughts about the bars, I know Racing Beat is on the more affordable end of the spectrum, so curious on what people think.

 

Yes you can fit a 94-97 front sway bar into a 90-93 car but it is not a direct swap. The 94-97 sway bars are mounted about 2" closer to the front of the car to accommodate the longer 1.8L engine. So the lever arm portion of the sway bar is longer to compensate. I'm not sure how skilled of a fabricator you are to be able to relocate the factory sway bar mounts (the sheet metal part with captive nuts that is spot welded to the chassis). But you could always try. However, because stiffer sway bars can overwhelm the flimsy factory sway bar mounts anyways, I would recommend simply removing the factory sway bar mounts entirely and replacing them with the beefy AWR mounts bolted in the 94-97 location.

 

Hey what a great answer, thanks for the recommendation. Should I anticipate a difference in using the 94-97 bar vs what a 90-93 bar would give with the AWR mounts?

 

IIRC there is a slight difference according to the calculations, but whether you'd notice it behind the wheel is another matter entirely. If you are going to stick with the 1.6 motor then just use the 90-93 sway bars. If you think you will be swapping in a 1.8, you might as well start working on the requisite suspension changes now.

See https://www.miataturbo.net/suspensio...2/#post1397495 for more info

 

Yeah my butt dyno isnt really in tune for anything yet, I'm still a noob. I am doing a 1.8 swap but also swapping/upgrading tons of other things, so the AWR mounts will be on the list

 

The AWR mounts accomodate both mounting locations for NA6 and NA8.

At least mine do....

Choose your poison, AWR will be able to handle it.

 

Lmao apparently these aren't compatible with racingbeat sway bar brackets. Sigh

 

You won't need the racing beat brackets, these are boxed and strong already

 

Sorry, for crap photo, I was already outside, and just wanted to add datapoint to show double mounting positions

I'd be willing to bet these are beefier than the stock brackets with RacingBeat supports.

Either one is fine.