Per Subject title: I need some anti sway bar suggestions from you gentlemen. I recently(last Friday) registered and had my car inspected and drove it around. It has the old 350 2bbl which runs good actually and I have 3:73's (posi) TH400 3200 s/p and am running 29 inch tall tires in the rear. The car will do quite a long burn out with just a little help(water/dusty road) but on a turn it "fish-tails" and I discovered just how much body roll this car has and did NOT like it. Does any one here have any suggestions? The shocks are good by the way...thanks for reading this far! Regards, 455nGLIDE
We put on a heavier stock type rear bar on our Red car. Mostly did it for traction purposes for the race track. It will bolt on to your stock lower control arms. I don't remember the brand..may have been opgi. http://www.opgi.com/product.asp?Pro...chapterid=96&topvalue=0&newflag=0&VendorCode=
Well, If cost isn't a problem, I'd vote the HR Parts rear bar. That's what I went with, but haven't been able to actually drive the car with it (longer resto than planned). I've heard nothing but good comments about them.
Hellwig has a new set of new tubular (light weight) bars that fit our cars. The rear is even adjustible so you can tune for understeer/oversteer preferences and it doesn't mount to the lower control arms. It mounts to the diff housing and the end links mount to the frame.
Sounds exactly like the HR Parts bar. Curious now; I'll have to check out the price comparison between them.
Looked into the rear sway bar myself for my 1971 Skylark. Hellwig part# 5800 fits but from what I can see you need to drill two holes and use spacers on each control arm side for install. Haven't seen one that doesn't require some modification if not replacing a factory set up.
Rear sway bar, I use the one that bolts to the lower control arms. Fatter front sway bar w/urethane bushings, new links w/ urethane bushings. KYB shocks all around. Check all control arm bushings for wear/dry rot/squeezed out. Replace with new RUBBER bushings as needed. Consider a tighter ratio steering box in the future.
OPGI and other suppliers sell the inserts to weld in to the lower control arms that were not factory boxed for the rear sway bar. They run about 30 bucks if I remember right. This is what I did on my 69 Chevelle along with an aftermarket 1" rear bar that was less expensive than the GM 7/8" factory bar. Otherwise you end up distorting the control arm when you tighten the 4 sway bar bolts.
I bought my front and rear swaybars from Quickor. It is important for good handling to match (not necessisarily the same size) the front and rear sway bars. My '65 now corners like it is on rails. It also has the close ratio steering box, 14X7 rally wheels, quality gas shocks, new springs, new rubber bushings front and rear, and BF Goodrich radial T/As. The posi and 355 rear gears also help. Rufus
I appreciate all the replies...as usual knowlegde and experience are readily shared here.:TU: Thanks Guys
The Hellwig 5800 is same as stock replacement and bolts up the same, except 1" dia. The footnotes (for 5800) say for the best bar, use the 1&1/8" part number 5706 for A body. Tried my dambdest to find 5706 price and picture but could not, no way, find it. Truck bars are pictured, described, & priced. The 5706 bar is 1 and 1/8 inch dia SOLID bar and uses links like a front sway bar that hook to the frame.... not bolted to lower controll arms. (Could not find anything on "hollow" Hellwig bars at all.) It 5706 is probably similar to HR bar but weighs a lot more & not adjustable for preload, therefore cheaper. I'm guessing less than $200. Good luck getting info on it though.
Thanks for clearing that up Gary . . .:gp: I was starting to wonder if anybody knew that the 5800 Hellwig and the HR Parts bar are two totally different animals. I can say I've never seen the other Hellwig one that bolts to the frame. Must be new? o No:
Helwigs tubular bars are new, I have a set in the garage. They are really light. When I lifted the box for the front bar I thought it was empty! http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=299254
Thanks for the link! Pretty similar to the HR Parts bar. Although, the HR Parts bar is a little more involved with the mounting to the axle tubes; it's recommended you weld the lower parts of the mounts, and the upper parts are actually brackets cut out of heavy plate (not U-bolts). Cool feature about the upper brackets is that they have slots in them to run your brake lines through, so you don't have to modify where your lines are running. That, and the links are adjustable with heim joints, not standard bushings; less bind? No need for extra holes in the bar? o No: But for the price, it sure beats out HR Parts.
For our race car, we are adding a rear drag sway bar like the HR and others mentioned. Works different from just a factory type. Our street car has the 1" factory type tying the two lower control arms together. We are thinking Spohn for ours. It's the last piece of the rear suspension for us. Tyler just narrowed the frame rails.
We are thinking Spohn for ours. It's the last piece of the rear suspension for us. Tyler just narrowed the frame rails. Hi Mark, If you haven't talked to Mark at SC&C about the Spohn bar, it would be worth a call. I'm not certain at all, but I got the impression that the Spohn and the Helwig bars were tuned for Road Racing and the HR bar is more tuned to Drag Racing?
Just discovered the Hellwig 5706 is a FRONT bar. The footnote didn't say that though. I finally found it listed under front bars today. HR parts still has the best rear system I can find so far.
Was looking through old posts and found this. I just got a chance to drive my 71 skylark for the 1st time after installing the H&R Parts super sway bar. I did not weld the rear end tube connectors as the company said there was no need for that unless you were using a transbrake or running something like low 10's or better. So it was completely bolt on other than 4 holes I had to drill for the double heim joints to mount into. My car is now hooking and going straight where I think the factory stuff was flexing some under launches. I took about .1 to .15 off my 60 foots (1.65 on a 12.04 ET with MT street slicks). What I wasn't expecting was the improvement on road driving. I was pleasantly surprised how much it improve cruising on the roadway. I am very happy with it and would recommend it to anyone thinking of upgrading their road driving.
