Thoughts on bending a sway bar.

So in my quest to stop the celica from rolling like a barge, the front stock sway bar does not like being spaced down 3”. It puts the end links at extreme angles and it’s super difficult to even get it bolted up.  Is it possible to heat and bend the ends of the bar to accommodate what I’m trying to accomplish? 

For pics: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/need-shorter-sway-bar-endlinks/138276/page1/

I think you're going to have other problems other than just getting that angle to line up. That bar is rotated so far that it's starting to have more fore/aft motion per unit vertical travel. As a mental exercise, keep moving the bar 'til it's vertical, as if you'd had to space the mounts down twice that much. I think the effect is more or less that the rate of the bar will increase, but it's also going to be more and more "bind-ey" as a bunch of the force is along the axis from the bar's pivot to it's end, while a given amount of wheel travel requires greater and greater rotation of the bar.

Looking at those pictures, I'm inclined to ask whether you could run the ends of the bar *under* the control arms with short links... Keep in mind the links can't be too short, as that's all that allows the bar and arm to follow their separate arcs.

If you do want to give it a whack, I think you're looking at finding a big enough lever to bend them cold; if you heat them enough to make it easy to bend, I suspect you'll lose the temper and run the risk of re-bending them in use. OTOH, that's at the end, where the forces are lowest (though also where the bar is thinned out...) Similarly, maybe the easiest way to "just get it bolted up" and see how it would work would be to cut some bushings to accommodate the angle (unless the hole's too small to run the bolt through at that angle, which is only going to get worse as the control arm comes up from full droop).

I think I might be looking for a bar from another application that fits in the space you've got, because both mounting points with the current bar are looking increasingly problematic.

Rumor has it a front bar from an ae86 works and has the cut out for the 1uz oil pan. Fat chance on finding one though.... I’ve listed a few wanted ads. The jDM yO! Brands are spendy. 

You could bend it. If that doesn't get you where you want it you might consider cutting the ends off and welding on a flat bar.  This is a Ford Ranger bar that I cut and welded to use on my Challenge Miata. Is it durable? Hell yes ! It lasted the entire weekend.

In reply to DeadSkunk :

Are you saying it didn’t Last after that?

Properly welded it should be no problem. The steel used in sway bars is not brittle but more springy since it acts like a spring.

Preheating and then letting any welds cool slowly should result in a joint that will last.

I can remember brazing attachments to a sway bar similar to the one pictured above and it never broke and it was used on a E/P autocross car.

You could also consider attaching the end links to the front side of the LCA rather then in the middle as it appears to be.

Bolting or welding a simple "U" piece of steel to the LCA will allow you to use a heim joint  as the attachment to the LCA.

In reply to Trackmouse :

No. It's still on the car, but the car hasn't moved since October. I think it would be fine, although I'll be removing it shortly to go back to stock. I'll probably use it on my next Challenge build though. As long as the welding is up to snuff the bar should work. There's more weld area on the bar than there is on the NA Miata end links I used.

In reply to jimbbski :

Good to know. So how crazy can I get with the control arm’s endlink hole? Could I move it forward AND introduce an angle to it? Or do the bar ends need to stay Parallel to the control arm?

The ends of sway bar arms are not loaded in torsion like the middle is.

I've cut the end off before and drilled and tapped for a Heim joint the bars are case hardened center drills like butter.