When you say it was "floppy," what exactly do you mean? The entire bar will rotate up and down with little force - but did you try to push one end up or down with the other end held in place? That's what it does - basically allows suspension travel freely when both wheels (left and right) move together (such as when loading the car or going over a bump), but provides a force resisting the "leaning" of the car from side to side. When you corner and the inside of the car tries to rise up (and the outside lean down), it torques the bar and transfers the force across to the other side. This way you can have a car that doesn't lean too much in the corners, but isn't sprung so tightly that it kills your back on the highway (among other things).

Hope this helps...

 

Ok, after thinking about the geometry for a few minutes, it seems that the sway bar is just meant to keep the suspension in check (on turns). Too soft doesn't work, and too strong cancels out the suspension's side-to-side independence. So it makes sense to have it a little floppy because a stiffer one causes a stiffer ride.

 

Great write-ups guys, thanks a lot. I feel a lot more comfortable now. This class has been a pain, but at least my professor let me do a paper on something interesting. I found another site, which explains a few more things about sway bars. Enjoy.

http://www.teamscr.com/sway.html

 

My front sway bar is currently used to hold down a stack of posters in my garage. Sway bar eliminators FTW.