Sway bars

The sway bar is a suspension piece that is important for a vehicles handling abilities. It is a strong steel bar connected to the hubs or knuckles with two pieces of steel with bushings, about 5" long, called 'sway bar links'  The sway bar connects from either sides of the car's hubs to the other.

The purpose of the sway bar is to push the inner wheels during hard cornering,  as the outer wheel is being pushed up by the weight of the car leaning towards that direction, the sway bar is forced to move up and therefore pushes the inner wheel up, to grip the tyres down more.  It also prevents the vehicle from 'rolling', by keeping the vehicle flatter to the ground and keeping the weight lower.

The sway bar design must not be too hard or too soft, and must not interfere with other under-chassis components.  It all relates to the weight of the non-suspended parts of the vehicle, and suspended part of the vehicle. If the sway bar is too hard, it will be a very stiff ride, because as one side of the vehicle hits a bump, the sway bar will push the other side up, instead of just one side of the vehicles wheels moving up.

The sway bar links are connected from the hub assembly to the sway bar ends with rubber bushings (most commonly), and the sway bar mounts mount the inner ends of the sway bars to the chassis. These mounts are similar to engine engine mounts, they have bushings inside and a hole where the sway bar inserts to.

After market sway bars can be adjustable, and may need a cert.  They are adjusted by how far in the sway bar links are.  If you are doing a wheel alignment or a WoF, just make sure that the adjustable sway bar is on the same setting on either side.