36 mm iroc sway bar upgrade question

[Streetbu]

Sorry to hijack but have a quick question. A friend gave me his IROC front sway bar. Hard to measure though. Where the bushings sit, it measures any where from 32mm to 36mm. What's the best way to tell which size bar it actually is?

 

[ssn696]

Blue painter's tape, with a square-cut end. Wrap and mark where it overlaps the end. Measure end to mark and divide by 3.14.

 

[oldsmobile joe]

i'll use the following method when in the junk yards. if a 1-1/4 open end wrench fits over the middle of the sway bar, its 32mm or less. if a 1-5/15 or 1-3/8 wrench fits over the bar, its a 34mm bar. if the 1-3/8 wrench doesn't fit over the bar, its 36mm. obviously, you can also use metric wrenches to measure, or a veneer caliper.

 

[80_lemans]

I'm running the 36MM F body sway bar on my '84 Monte, with the F41 jounce bars, but not the Grand Prix bar. Everything fits OK. I got the bushings for the frame mounts for the bar from a company called Top Down Solutions in California. They make bushings that will fit the 36MM bar, and fit in the O.E. frame brackets, and you can drill the brackets and install a grease fitting, so you can grease the mounts. Hope this helps.

Great info, i was wondering about the bushings. good to know somebody out there makes them for our cars!

 

[MC96]

Energy Suspension has a small tape you can cut out of the back of their catalog and it measures diameter easily.
They have the bushings/ end links too.

http://energysuspension.com/assets/files/energysuspension-catalog.pdf 2nd to last page

Not sure if you can print it out at scale or if you have to have the physical book

 

[Streetbu]

I have a digital caliper, problem was the diameter seems all over the place right where the bushings ride.

 

[MC96]

One I pulled from the yard was pitted and hard to measure like you describe.
Next to that area should have a decent surface still. It will also be the same diameter as where the bushings sit.

 

[Longroof79]

Just be sure of the size, because there's also a 34mm bar that's used on F-body cars. I think the 34mm bar is solid, compared to the 36mm. I believe the 36mm bars were used on IROC Camaros, and TransAm GTA's....possibly the Z-28 as well.

 

[MC96]

My 34 is hollow, Im not sure what they used to determine what got 34's and what got 36's.