Keep in Mind The sway bar arms pictured are 18 inches long right now. When I cut them to size they are only gonna be like 9-1/2 long.
Update.
So the tube that the sway bar sits in had a slightly larger ID than both bushings I bought the bushings had a bit of slop, No big deal I went & bought the next size smaller ID tube they had so the bronze bushings now need to be placed on a Lathe & turned down to be made smaller.
I think I’m gonna have a buddy Bend the Aluminum sway bar arms to clearance the battery tray rather than mill them. He has a big ass press fingers crossed.
I ordered the 2 sway bar Drop Links that will connect the sway bar arms and then to the Shock mounts. They were $98 shipped. The cost on this thing is ticking up.
So far the bar was $80
The Bushings and Arms were like $90
The drop links were $98
And I can see another $200 in getting the tube mounts welded on and the arms bent and shock mounts. So $500 when it’s all said and done. Damm I never thought it would get that expensive. Good news is If I decide to do a front sway bar they sell complete speedway Swaybar kits for $250 that have everything.
The challenging thing with my rear sway bar is how wide it needed to be. Most sway bars that are 33+ wide are for a Big Heavy 3000LB car’s or Hot Tod Trucks
My bar was made for a Micro Sprint car (1300 Lbs) I think if I would have known what I know now I might have been able to put a sway bar together for less but that’s just the cost of education.
6 posts were split to a new topic: New ideas inventing hacking
A perpetual motion machine! Schweet!
Well the drop links came in.
I made the mistake of taking note from the many off road sway bar install videos. All those guys use 5/8 drop links. The printing on the mirrors that says “objects may appear bigger” Damm these things are Overkill. But I like them.
I don’t think I’ll waste time/energy shipping them back for a smaller versions I’ll just take note for the next one. (Pretty sure) I’ll do a front bar as well seeing as how fun this project has been 
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I have plenty of material for drilling and using a large bolt on the Sway bar arms, and I don’t see a down side with using a large bolt on the shock mount as well. But like everything ya don’t know until ya know
Well, I decided to Order a different set of drop links. These ones come with the misalignment spacers that I would have needed to buy to make them work correctly. The misalignment spacers would’ve cost me an extra $40 bucks.
These new Aluminum drop links were only $69
All in. Vs $130 I would have into the current ones with spacers
Here’s a parts look up from a Polaris dealer
I hate to say it out loud but I am thinking Im gonna Chop the battery tray a few inches on either side.(the red line in the photo) Because my Bar is not the 33 inches wide like I had planned I’m forced to either bend the sway bar arms or cut the battery box.
#1 If I bend the sway bar arms it’s gonna cost me more $ and I’m still gonna be dealing with some really tight tolerances, I’d hate for the shocks to make contact with the links cause it’s gonna be real tight.
#2 if I cut the Battery Tray it’s not gonna cost me anything but time & it’s gonna open up the Aera & give me some room for flex & not make it a issue if I have a bit of movement either way.
Over all it will be cleaner install cause I won’t have the sway bar arms dining funky bends to clear the battery tray & changing links or adjusting the bar won’t be a pain with the extra 3–4 inches on either side. I can’t see needing a bigger battery that would require the extra battery tray that I’m thinking of cutting out. I’ll sleep on it.
Thanks for the Link and the parts list looks like I need a M12
@grantwest you gotta stop hauling all those big girls around, 
that would eliminate the need for the sway bar … LOL
Mike: if your GEM went more then 30 Mph in an underground parking Lott you might find out your need a Swaybar as well.
Tru dat my friend. LOL
In reality the Need for a Sway bar is the Result of all the high speed mods we have done over the years. A car with a 25 Mph top speed and heavy lead acid battery’s dosen’t feel that it handles all that bad. Now eject 400lbs of Lead acid battery’s & bump up the speed to almost 60 and you will find out what ever handling issues your car might have. 90% of the roads I drive on are relatively straight. But we do have 1 higher speed road that is loaded with Off camber turns that feels slightly unsafe if you’re going even posted speeds. The gem feels top heavy on these fast sweeping corners & sways from side to side Corner to corner. The custom front sway bar I Installed on my 2002 did such a great job it was a no brainer to move forward with this one. On my 2002 it was a diffrent type of sway. Example On that car it felt like the ENTIRE car rolled evenly from side to side. The Front sway bar stoped the roll and the car turned much flatter. My Roll or sway in my 2016 is much diffrent the Roll is very distinct in the rear corner. Surprisingly, the front feels fine. When your turning “in” the Inside wheel feels like it wants to come off the ground. It feels like someone has placed a Jack under that rear inside wheel and is jacking the car up! It felt odvious to me a rear sway bar would make things much better. I’m excited to feel the effects of how the sway bar changes the ride. It’s been a fun project learning about splined speedway bars and how they work. The front bar i used on my 2002 was from a flat track ATV
Speed shop. It was a bit light but it did its job.
This time I got a bar that was designed with the total weight of the car in mind. Example you need to find a bar that’s for a 1400+ or - pound car. And they don’t have a lot of cars that weigh 1400lbs. That’s why the Micro Sprint or Midget sprint cars have bars that you can use. They are in the same weight category. But how Micro and Midget sprint cars use sway bars is much diffrent then how track cars use them and that’s an entirely different subject that I know nothing about. Extracting sway bar info or chassis set up from Sprint car guys is pretty tough. As soon as you tell these guys what your plans for a sway bar is they almost hang up the phone.
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The classic VW beetle weighs ~1900 lbs. LOL
The MG Midget comes in at 1500 lbs but don’t know if the width sufficiently matches something that would fit on a GEM.
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I would start there.
Umm Dave. Sorry have u been following. The train has left the station. The links to the sway bars above. Ummm typical questions
How wide is it?
How long do the arms come back?
Welcome to the rabbit hole
I found a used sway bar for the MG Midget on ebay and asked the seller if he could tell me the eye-to-eye distance and the distance from the center of the bar to the line extending from a line drawn through the enter of the eyelets. I figure someone selling used might do these measurements as opposed to someone selling new.
My thoughts. Grant needs to cut things up even with new parts. They are all about the same. Buy something cheap and make it fit. IMO.
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Doug: you’re starting to Get my frustration. You see used parts for sale and they “Look” like they would fit but UNTILL you know the measurements it’s just a guess. Sellers never list these measurements because they figure some one is just gonna bolt it right back on the same car they took it off Just for laughs the bar would need to be like 33 wide and the arms come back 10 inches for it to be in the ball park. Also the arms would need to be at a 90degree