C H E A P front sway bar idea: heres what I did....

[Kern Dog]

For anyone with a 73-76 A body, 70-74 E body or any 70-72 B body, I have a way to save several bucks while getting the largest front sway bar that will still fit through the k member.
I have a 70 Charger. It HAD a 1 1/8" Addco front sway bar, but I wanted bigger. The only vendor that I found listing a 1 1/4" solid bar is Firm Feel. I'm sure that they have great products, but I wanted to save a few bucks. Sure, sometimes these efforts bite me in the ***, but this time it worked out.
I went to the junkyard and pulled a 1 1/4" front sway bar from a mid 80s GM 2wd 1 ton truck. At home I laid the Addco bar atop the GM bar , then cut the extra material off of the GM bar. I tapered the ends and had a guy in a shop drill holes in the ends for the end links. Total cost for the "custom" bar: $33 for the bar, $20 for the bushings and $17 worth of Coors beer for the guy at the shop.
The GM bar isn't a mirror image of the Addco bar, but it fits. The 1/8" difference doesn't sound like much, but using the math formula to calculate sway bar rates, this tiny increase results in a 30% stiffer bar!
Using a front bar this large would lead to MORE undertsteer if not paired with a larger rear bar, so I'm REinstalling the 7/8" bar I had before.
Do it to it.:headbang:

 

[Jim Bob The Dancing Bear]

Pics?

 

[RustyRatRod]

That's cool and all and don't take this wrong, but how many miles did that bar have on it? Spring steel does have a life span. Course in this case, goin from a heavier vehicle to a light one I imagine would help the bar last longer. I applaud your effort. I am all about budget stuff. Pics would be awesome.

 

[Cranky]

Shade Tree Engineering at it's best! I like this kind of stuff and do a lot of it myself...or did a lot. Getting too damn old now....but gonna try and do one more car before my bones say no completely. Re-arching and stacking my own leaf springs isn't so easy anymore

 

[Kern Dog]

The bottom bar is similar to the stock 70 B body sway bar. It is from a 74 Duster and measures 7/8".
The middle bar is the Addco 1 1/8" bar. The top is one of the GM bars that I have modified. It measures 1 1/4"

 

[Kern Dog]

pictures!

I didn't take any "before" pictures of the GM bar, but in this shot it shows how much material that I removed.

 

[Kern Dog]

I had trouble on the last one...

 

[Kern Dog]

The ends were tapered with a DeWalt grinder, then I had the 7/16" holes drilled at a trailer shop. I radiused the holes with a deburr bit in a drill.

 

[Kern Dog]

Pushing the bar through the k member wasn't easy. I had to raise the car up pretty high. It fits nicely once it is in place though. Yeah, I NEED to fix the RH valve cover leak!

 

[Kern Dog]

I used 1/2" thick aluminum plate for the mounts at the K member.

 

[Jim Bob The Dancing Bear]

Great job.

 

[CtownChris]

Wow, I like that and think I need one. Have you thought of getting a bunch of those GM pieces and fabbing up a lot for our cars. Could start a business.

 

[Kern Dog]

There is no shortage of them in the junkyards. The trouble is, after the scrounging for the bars, the labor and materials to cut, grind and drill, THEN to add in the cost of the bushings.....It gets pretty close to the $300 for a new bar from Firm Feel. For a guy working on his own car, it is time well spent, but to make it as a business? Not sure about that one. It took me 2 hours to clean, cut and grind it. I could buy a Titanium drill bit to make the holes. The bushings are $40 retail for the end links and "D" bushings. I might fab up a few to sell at swap meets. I just figured that I'd post here so that the budget crowd can take it from here.
Thanks for the nice words guys, Greg

 

[Kern Dog]

The install is complete. I even REinstalled the 7/8" rear bar. The car feels rock solid. Body roll was reduced and the car feels tight. It feels so good, I doubt that I have the balls to push it to its limits on the street! The improvements made it even more apparant that the stock bucket seats are terribly inadequate for high G cornering.

 

[RustyRatRod]

That's really great work Gregory. I would never have thought of that. Did it really make a big difference?

 

[Kern Dog]

Looking at old magazine road tests, these cars had a LOT of body roll/lean even with the limited grip of the skinny stock tires. The stock front sway bars were small and few cars had rear sway bars. The tire technology has improved so much since then, the tires we can buy for street use rival race tires of the 60s!
When I had the 76 Camaro, I was limited by the smog laws as to how I could modify the engine. I switched my efforts to making the car handle better. The Charger is smog exempt, so this enables me to improve the car in all areas.
I'll easily admit that installing a kit from a suspension supplier is a far easier way to go. Hotchkiss offers some kits that are getting great feedback. I'm happy to see that our cars are getting attention for their cornering and handling capabilities. Drag racing is fun, but I really like to drive the car and feel confident that it will respond when I want it.
My efforts were to achieve a neutral balance in handling while having minimal body roll. If I had a small block with aluminum heads and intake, there would be less weight over the nose and the Addco 1 1/8" bar would have probably been enough to keep the car neutral. The heavier big block required more front bar.

 

[Greg Ducato]

Great job sir, thanks for posting

 

[OldFireGuy]

It isn't always about cost.

many times the 'home fabricator' just wants to try his hand at doing something. Great job and thought process. I have a good friend who does this type of thing all the time, as most home mechanics did in the past. Don't let it become a thing of the past.

 

[Kern Dog]

There are times when I'll spend hours fabricating something that is available with one phone call.
I'm a Carpenter Framer, so I am used to making things fit together. I spent hours making sway bar brackets for a generic rear bar for a Dart. I could have called Summit and bought an Addco bar for less. So what. I like doing this stuff.

 

[5.7 hemi]

That is really nice. Thinking outside the box is what makes this hobby grow, great job!!