Rear sway bar sliding side to side

Hello all,

I've got a '99 Civic that I'm trying to upgrade the rear sway bar. A common problem with adding large rear sway bars is the subframes tear out, so there are some aftermarket braces out there to prevent this.
I bought an subframe brace and a 20mm rear bar, made by different companies. The brace has the sway bar mounting holes in a different location than stock, and the 20mm rear bar came with hardware to fit stock location. So as they didn't play nice together, I bought some universal sway bar brackets/bushings and bolted it all up.

Upon doing this, I discovered there is a small bend in the sway bar right were the bushings end up using the different bushing location dictated by the subframe brace.
What this means is that when the bar is centered, the spots where the bar is bolted to the car are not parallel.
Here's a couple pictures showing evidence of the bend...see the gap between the bushing and bar circled in yellow?

Of course as soon as I took the car for a drive like this, I found the bar and slid over to an area where the bar wasn't bent.
Note the gap is now gone:

Passenger rear end link: Drivers rear end link:

Now obviously leaving the bar like this is going to result in difference in handling when turning left vs right. I don't see any way to fix the issue short of using a different rear bar that doesn't have that small bend. What I'm contemplating doing is putting a shaft collar on the bar to keep the bar centered on the car. Maybe a cheap version using a strip of rubber innertube or something and a hose clamp. This would keep the bar centered, but should I be concerned with any sort of binding? I could see the bushings getting worn out quickly if I were to do this.

What says GRM? Bite the bullet and buy a different rear bar or is forcing the bar to be centered an acceptable/safe idea?

could you drill new bushing mounting holes in the brace inboard from where the bushings are now?

maybe this: split shaft collar

steel, aluminum, stainless, plastic

http://www.ruland.com/ps_collars_shaft_sp.asp

I've seen bars with "washers" welded on to prevent side movement.

novaderrik wrote: could you drill new bushing mounting holes in the brace inboard from where the bushings are now?

It's a thought, but it would be not as sturdy as the mount locations the brace was designed with, plus would kill any resale value when I'm done. I think a different bar would be a better choice.

In reply to fasted58:

Thanks for the link , that is exactly what I had in mind. I'm just not sure if there are any ill-effects of securing the bar to the car at a location where the bar is bent.

hose clamp will work. there's not a lot of lateral force on the bar.

AngryCorvair wrote: hose clamp will work. there's not a lot of lateral force on the bar.

+1, my old milano actually came like that from the factory, the design and mounting of the bar means it needs to stay centered, so it had a hose clamp to keep it from sliding.

Run_Away wrote:

novaderrik wrote: could you drill new bushing mounting holes in the brace inboard from where the bushings are now?

It's a thought, but it would be not as sturdy as the mount locations the brace was designed with, plus would kill any resale value when I'm done. I think a different bar would be a better choice. In reply to fasted58: Thanks for the link , that is exactly what I had in mind. I'm just not sure if there are any ill-effects of securing the bar to the car at a location where the bar is bent.

looks like the brace is made out of 3/8" aluminum- should be plenty strong to hold a sway bar in place, especially if you can put a steel plate on the backside of the brace or tap into whatever material is there.

I use two hose clamps on my 2011 WRX's front bar. The thing doesn't move side to side at all.

You've already received the best answer there is - the split collar is what you need, unless you really want to go the cheap way and hope that a hose clamp won't move, or wear the bush it sits beside.

Some cars (MGB) used these from the factory. You really need two, normally installed on the inside next to both frame clamps.

Interesting that some cars have bars that 'walk' and some don't seem to.