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work is progressing nicly on the 412 front end rebuild but I am need of some replacement anti roll bar bushes (I think it is also known as the sway bar?). If it helps identify the parts the numbers are 411 411 045 + 411 411 042A.

Are there any from another vehicle that will do the job as I have tried all the UK suppliers I can think of without any joy on this one.

I was talking to the mechanic doing the work for me and he thinks that the end ones he can adapt Golf bushes and brackets to fit, but it is the ones that hold the bar in place in the middle that are the problem. There are four of them in total, two to each bracket with the lower pair wrapping around the anti roll bar and the upper pair wrapping around a bracket mounted to the vehicle.

By the Ray if you read this, the centering ring for the trailing arm was there but VERY, VERY ELIPTICAL so we are replacing them with delrin.

The rubber do-nuts seem servicable and as he is a tad reluctant to do the half ball modification at the moment and I'm a tad wary of the urethane after ubercrap's experience, reluctantly I will re-use the rubber do-nut bushes for now and see how things settle.

The ball and donuts can really be done at any time. The issue with urthane is not too bad...its just that with the current design....of the washer discs in the rear and the flange at the front....the compression of a harder urethane donut (say-60-70 duro) becomes dangerous to the metal parts....and using a lower durometer (say 40-50 duro) donut for softness...can result in a part that has too much bounce.

Actually what I have used with pretty good result though they are a tad thin....are donuts made out of screenprinting squeegee material. This comes on 50mm wide by 10mm thick strips. They have variations that are commonly cast in sandwich style with either dual durometers or like 60 or 70 on one side and 90 on the other. They also make sandwiches of triple durometer of 60-90-60 and 70-90-70 durometer.
The first set of donuts I made were cut out of these with a dual hole saw in oneshot. They worked very well...but since two rings of each stacked were roughly only 20mm thick...they were a little thin.

A servicable sway bar bushing (the body mount part) can be made from a modified replacement lower shock "eye" bushing from many shock absorbers. Usually just sanding a band into the middle section of teh eye bushing allows it to sit well in the "saddle". The upper one is teh same. It just nees to be spiral slit with a knife to pop onto the pin. Ray

The watercooled outer link will not work well. been there. It stands up too high and can eventually on a hard bottom out bring the sway bar in contact with the body.

Its actually would not be too hard to cast a new bushing into the stock outerlink with urethane.

I have aslo found that for the most part...most of the stock bushings both outer and inner have so much of their rubber covered with metal that other than outside edge weathering....there is little degradation and change in performance. Ray

Cheers Ray

I have found a company that makes universal bushes

http://www.powerflex.co.uk/uk_county.as ... t%20Sussex

so I'll get the measurements later on and give them a try.

The large rubber bushes at either end of the bar have had the hole that runs through them wear to a slight oval shape allowing the bar to move around. Back in the winter this was causing a strange squeak that a drop of lubricant stopped so I think now is the time to change them.

As for the watercooled outerlink I have mentioned you concerns but he thinks that by adjusting the height of the retaining bracket to match the height of the stock bush then this should avoid the problem of the bar contacting the body, he showed me what he plans to do to alter the length of the threaded part of the Golf bracket and it sounds a good plan so think I will go with that and see how it works, shall let you know if I've made a mistake.

Yes....that is a method I dabbled in and it should work. One warning though...DO NOT drill extra holes in the control arms whatever you do. These are at best...forgings...at worst..cast and tempered steel. I beleive the radius arms were induction welded in and then the whole mess hardened. Widening a hole should be no problems though. Ray

Cheers Ray, no extra holes are planned it is simply (if I can use that word with the front suspension of the Type 4 in the same sentence ) a case of extending the thread on the Golf outerlink and cutting it down to the correct length to match the height of the stock bracket.