sway bars, are they worth it?

[stenberg83]

has anyone had of these? i wonder if its worth the money...

http://www.spohn.net/shop/1978-1987...stable-Rear-Sway-Bar-1978-1987-GM-G-Body.html

 

[patmckinneyracing]

My question is in regards to the caprice/b-body rear sway bars. From what I've heard g-bodies and b-bodies share the same lower control arms on the rear end housing. If you look at a stock sway bar from a b-body, it is consideribly bigger than a g-body's and it mounts up different, but should bolt right up the same way.

 

[oldtinsmith]

patmckinneyracing,
IIRC, the LCA's of both the b-body and the g-body are the same as you stated.The g-body bar is bolted onto the sides of the LCA,s with a spacer inside the arm to prevent collapse of the arm. The b-body bar is mounted onto the bottom of the LCA,s with a "U" shaped channel secured to the arm with 4 self tap bolts through the 4 holes used to mount the g-body bar, then the b-body bar mounts to this channel. It,s been a long time since I,ve been under a b-body so I may not recall correctly.

If I read you correctly, the way the b-body mounts would work on the g-body. I agree! The b-body sway bar is wider than the g-body bar because the b-body axle is wider than the g-body,s. I am interested in this so please correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[patmckinneyracing]

A while back I found an 8.5 rear end with a 3.42 posi in the back of an 88' caprice. I was going nuts cause I thought it could bolt up in my malibu. After talking to a friend of mine, he tried it once and the LCA's mounted up just fine but it was the UCA's that would not mate up.

Yes the g-body rear sway bar mounts on the inside between the two LCA's. If I remember right, I remember seeing the b-body rear sway bar actually mounting inside the LCA, which would explain why it's wider. It has to compensate in width for going the extra 3-4 inches into the LCA. I was curious about it because the way it mounts seems to be a more efficient way of mounting a rear sway bar and actually benefiting more from it. Figure it worked on the larger b-bodies, so the effects would definately be noticed on the small g-body. Not saying there is anything wrong with a g-body rear sway bar, but if you can get a larger rear sway bar that handles better, then why not.

 

[81cutlass]

Last gen Chev 2 dr 4wd blazers have a "H&R parts and stuff" style bar. Its just a little smaller, and WAY cheeper. Just have to fab up some mounts on the frame. It mounts to the axle with soemthing like muffler clamps, then goes forward and has a end link that goes up and mounts to the frame instead of the LCA's.

If you have fab skills, and want a GOOD rear bar for cheep, thats your ticket.

 

[79loserbluebu]

I wouldn't go with the Blazer rear sway bar... If anything get something that was made for these cars. I put one of those bars on my DD 01' S10 and honestly if I had to do it again I'd fab something up like these bars. I don't know about everyone else but I haven't felt a huge difference between a car with and without the rear sway bar. I think it still has to do with the stock springs but I put a set of Bilstein's on the back and it improved slightly. Body mounts all look good too. With the two vehicles I've done suspension mods to, the best mods were lowering, and quick ratio steering boxes. I think everything else you need to have some serious coin into it before you'll feel something physical instead of what you "think" you gained.

 

[patmckinneyracing]

I won't argue with you on that one 79loserbu. The quick ratio box does make a helluva difference. On the other hand I noticed a big difference with adding the rear sway bar. It was before I lowered the front end, but even now there is a big difference between with and without.

Now as for the whole blazer rear sway bar mentioned, you will notice a bigger difference with a gbody rear sway bar. A sway bar being mounted to either the frame or the axle housing isn't gonna do much for you. The good thing about mounting it to the LCA's is that it helps keep the LCA's movement in tandem during sharp turns or even regular driving. Without it mounted that way, say you take a sharp right turn, the driver side LCA is gonna move closer to the frame while the passenger side remains the same height, resulting in body roll.

 

[86Cutlass383SR]

Here's the paragraph on SC&C about rear sway bars. Read it, it makes since. Bottom of page under Pro-Touring rear swaybar.

http://www.scandc.com/spohnarms.htm

"The Spohn/SC&C 3 way adjustable rear swaybar is a quantum leap forward for A and G body GM cars! The factory method of attaching the swaybar to the lower suspension arms is inexpensive to manufacture but leaves a LOT to be desired on a performance car. The long suspension arms have a tremendous amount of leverage which drastically limits the effectiveness of the bar. This is why you sometimes see HUGE rear bars for these cars. The other problem is that when the suspension articulates the bar causes it to bind up. The bigger the bar the more it binds. Our ProTouring bar uses links mounted to the crossmember with teflon lines spherical bearings for bind free articulation. This method also allow much higher rates with a much smaller and lighter swaybar."

 

[pontiacgp]

86...the link doesn't seem to work

it works now... :?:

 

[oldtinsmith]

I have to admit that I've read the same opinions on rear sway bars before.....somewhere! The article I read also stated that mounting the bar to the frame got rid of the unsprug weight that the axle mounted bar caused. This thread is fast becoming a very good discussion ( debate? ) on rear sway bar setups. We can only see a plus/plus, and be able to better set up our g-bodies 😀 .


Later.