The Ford Transit Connect shares many of the same parts from other vehicles such as the Ford Focus, Ford Escape, Ford Kuga, Volvo, Mazda. Back in 2020, We heard a rumor that states that a Ford Focus RS sway bar would fit on the Transit Connect. In order to explore this rumor we enlisted the support from John Hotchkis, most notable for his own brand of suspension components. We were not able to drive to the main plant located in California, But was able to catch up with him at his home base plant in Charlotte, NC.
The reason we contacted John was that on his web site he offered a 31mm sway bar designed for the Ford Focus RS and this was a perfect opportunity to have John, His Crew and I test fit his sway bar on our Transit Connect.
13 hours later, we arrived at his shop and was given a tour of his facility.
John had the sway bar ready and waiting for the attempted install later that day.
After the tour, the entire shop took on the project of removed the engine cradle from the van and attempted to install the 31mm sway bar. Although the sway bar actually bolted up in the correct orientation, the bends of the sway bar did not clear areas of the Connect subframe engine cradle. The issue was, the bends of the sway bar did not line up with the Connect engine cradle but would line up with the Focus cradle as these two cradle are designed differently.
Image from another site that shows the main structure of a Focus Cradle where as the two main uprights of the cradle have these smoother out spoon shaped areas as to allow the sway bar full articulation. The Transit Connect engine cradle is not designed with these spooned out areas thus the Focus sway bar once installed would hit and be obstructed by these two main uprights.
Feeling disappointed and as we were leaving, John came over to check out the van. he told us he liked the hotrod van, but was not willing to explore anymore designing or manufacturing new parts for the van or the Focus as his sway bar was not selling.
While driving back home, I get a call from a buddy of mine in Goldsboro NC. he asked if we were still in NC and wanted us to swing by his place as he had something to show us. We diverted our route to include his shop and once there we discovered that while he had a 2019 Ford escape on the lift, He noticed a bright metallic blue sway bar mounted on the escapes engine cradle. A cradle that looked similar in design to that of the Connects. We learn that Hardrace, a company from Taiwan, deigned the sway bar just for the Ford Kuga/Escape as well as the Focus. But did not list anything about the Transit Connect.
Image from the Hardrace website showing the 28mm sway bar designed for the Ford Kuga/Escape mounted on the Kuga engine cradle.
We contacted Hardrace North America in an effort to find out if they've tested the Kuga sway bar on a transit Connect. According to the spokesperson they have not nor were they willing to. Hardrace North America was not being to friendly offering us any support of information and even when we attempted to order the sway bar, they said it would take months if not years to be delivered. We just didn't have that long.
In order to get this sway bar on time, we contacted Aleks Racing and although the part was to be shipped form Taiwan, the manufacturing plant in Taiwan was hit by a hurricane. But we got the sway bar within a reasonable amount of time as the founder of Aleks Racing said it would be. The sway bar arrived with all the hardware and rubber bushing which we were going to replace with the red energy suspension poly bushings which we were getting from Suspension.com
We had our performance shop handle the installation, But they avoided my instructions of using teflon tape on the bar itself and they did not use grease on the bushing. While leaving their lot, the van was squeaking and knocking the whole time. I turned back around and told them of their mistake. The shop foreman had the van returned to the lift and asked me to wait in the lobby. Before leaving I snapped a couple of shots of the failed attempt at greasing the bushing or installing the Teflon tape.
Later we learned that the knocking was coming from a set of the Whiteline end links as these did not fit correct. yet worked just fine with the stock sway bar. Driving away form the shop again, the tech still didn't Teflon tape of grease the bushings.. yet looking closer , they simply put grease on the left and right side of the bushings and didn't actually lower the engine cradle to access and remove the bushings. This meant we were forced to take the van to a reserve performance shop and have them attempt to correct the first shop's mistake.
While at the reserve performance shop, I asked the general manager to inspect the sway bar for Teflon tape and grease. Based on his assessment, The first shop did none of what I asked. The reserve shop agreed to make the necessary corrections. Normally shops would not take on or repair what other shops had done. I watched as they lowered the cradle, removed the bushing and teflon taped the bar. Then grease the bushings as instructed.
While working on the van, the shop foreman noticed that our whiteline end links were damaged and needed to be replaced. Until I could acquire a better set f end links, the removed the damaged links and replaced with with a cheaper version until I could locate something better.
Finally, back on the road, there wasn't anymore squeaking or knocking and with the support of our reserve shop, we proved that a 28mm Hardrace sway bar designed for a 2019 Ford Kuga/Escape will in fact fit on a 2020 Connect, without obstructions and full range of articulation.
TIP: Although a Focus RS sway bar will not fit on the Transit Connect, A Transit Connect 24mm sway bar will fit on a Focus RS. This is quick, mild upgrade without spending a lot of money. The factory Connect sway bar is listed as being 24mm, so the 28mm Hardrace sway bar would be a mild improvement over the factory bar.
