Another Swaybar thread

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David W

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Hi all

Looking for input or to hear what people are running

here my set up
70 swinger with slant
.89 tbars " 340 or BB "
front 73 disk swap with 2" drop spindels
stock 70 non tabed LCA
Rear is a 8.25

What Sway bar for the front ? ??
PST , Addco , Hellwig , Hotchkins

Its a non swaybar car .. so im not looking to reinvent the wheel on the install

And is a rear sway bar really worth it for street driving car ?

Thanks ....
 
I just ordered a Hellwig for the front and the rear of my ‘73 Swinger. I chose it due to my lack of LCA tabs, the reviews I found from other members, and the price. I got both delivered to my door from Leaf Springs, Helper Springs and Suspension Parts | SD Truck Springs for $305. For that price I couldn’t talk myself out of it. Substantially less money than summit or jegs. I just wrapped up a front end rebuild with all new bushings and joints as well as PST 1.03 t bars and Billstein shocks. It is cornering like a go kart already. Sorry I can’t give a definitive answer on the difference yet as they just arrived Friday and I was cruising Route 66. There are a lot of members that feel it makes a difference though.
 
PST is a great company to work with and offers a great product. James from PST is a member here and a great guy. He also offers a forum discount. I would call him if I were you and tell him what I was looking for. Be better than fifty different answers.
 
I will shoot you a note as soon as I get them on and get a little driving in.
Have a part number? Who do you attach the sway bar to the LCA?

Trying to weigh out if it’s better to buy an old A body seat up w/ Sway bar, or go aftermarket
 
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Have a part number? Who do you attach the sway bar to the LCA?

Trying to weigh out if it’s better to buy an old A body seat up w/ Sway bar, or go aftermarket
I just wrapped up the install on both bars today. The car stays flatter when turning than I could have imagined. I will grab the part numbers tomorrow in the am and post them. The Hellwig kit I bought comes with tabs that bolt to the LCA. Super easy to install and made a huge difference. I can’t speak to installing an OE setup but I recommend this one all day long.
 
Have a part number? Who do you attach the sway bar to the LCA?
Trying to weigh out if it’s better to buy an old A body seat up w/ Sway bar, or go aftermarket
most of them come with tabs that either bolt on (need to drill a hole), or weld on. you can also buy or fabricate tabs

edit: are your calipers on the front or back of the spindle? makes a difference what you get
 
A front sway bar is definitely worth it on a street driven car. Especially yours, since those .89" torsion bars are still undersized unless your plan is stock width bias ply tires.

Hotchkis:
Pros- Beautiful craftsmanship and design, gloss black powdercoating, very detailed instructions but some applications require welding, great customer service. 1.5" diameter hollow front sway bar. Sway bar tab location is not in the factory location for the 67-72 cars, tabs are included to be welded on. Non factory tab location gives additional tire clearance for wide front tires. Fit and finish on the Hotchkis stuff is about as good as it gets.
Cons- Price

Hellwig:
Pros- Great design, great craftsmanship, very detailed instructions and usually have bolt on mounting options. Two versions of the 67-72 front sway bar- #5906 solid 1.125" bar, uses the stock 67-72 sway bar tab location #55917 hollow 1.25" bar, is a "pro touring" design that moves the sway bar tab location and allows for wider tires. Both versions come with sway bar tabs that can be bolted on. Hellwig bars are currently on sale at Summit, and are less expensive than Hotchkis to begin with.
Cons- Hammertone powerdercoating isn't as sexy as Hotchkis' gloss black, hardware is quality and works great but not quite as nice as Hotchkis

Bergman Autocraft:
To be fair, I haven't used one of these bars so I can't give a ton of info. BAC now sells a hollow, 1.25" diameter front sway bar for 67-72 A-bodies. Price is similar to the Hellwig bars, and Peter Bergman (@GMachineDartGT) is a member here and has great stuff and great customer service. I use a bunch of his stuff on my car, I just already have sway bars for all of mine. He also sells great weld-on sway bar tabs, which can be used for other sway bar applications if you have a welder and want to skip the bolt on style tabs.

PST:
I haven't used one of these bars either so I can't give a ton of info. They're a solid 1 1/8" bar that uses the factory tab locations, which will limit tire clearance like the Hellwig #5906 or any factory bar. PST is a forum sponsor and offers a members discount, and their customer service is great.

Addco:
Pros: super cheap, bigger than a factory sway bar
Cons: cheap hardware, lousy instructions, basically all the problems you'd expect from the cheapest offering on the market. Better off just saving up and getting a better bar, you'll be happy you did

I have Hotchkis sway bars front and rear on my Challenger and a set for my '71 Dart GT. On my '74 Duster I run Hellwig bars. Super happy with the Hellwig bars, they function great and they would be my go-to sway bar unless I could get the Hotchkis bars on sale. The Hotchkis bars are just flat out beautiful pieces, but they cost the part too. I was lucky enough to get a couple of sets of the Hotchkis bars by taking advantage of a few sales and some discounts at Summit back when they used to do big discounts for the holidays.
 
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Have a part number? Who do you attach the sway bar to the LCA?

Trying to weigh out if it’s better to buy an old A body seat up w/ Sway bar, or go aftermarket
The part number for my front bar is 55905 and the rear is 6907. My car is a ‘73 and I would recommend checking fitment for earlier models before buying. I’m not entirely sure what year ranges it fits.
 
Can't beleive you skipped...
Firm Feel Also makes well thought out bolt on tab versions and has different bars to cover the different OEM mounting methods.

Other than for drag racing, a front anti-sway is pretty much always a good thing.

A rear sway bar is 'nother story. Never just randomly install a rear sway bar. When used it needs to be a part of a system. Too easy to end up with oversteer - and on the street you get to find this out in the worst way - like a damp downhill. Then its all over.
 
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Can't beleive you skipped...
Firm Feel Also makes well thought out bolt on tab versions and has different bars to cover the different OEM mounting methods.

Other than for drag racing, a front anti-sway is pretty much always a good thing.

A rear sway bar is 'nother story. Never just randomly install a rear sway bar. When used it needs to be a part of a system. Too easy to end up with oversteer - and on the street you get to find this out in the worst way - like a damp downhill. Then its all over.

Good point! Firm Feel definitely deserves a mention.

But I can tell you why I forgot them. I’ve never run Firm Feel sway bars. And while I have no doubt that they’re high quality, well made parts there’s a few things that have always turned me off of their sway bars. First and foremost, the price. They cost more than the Hotchkis bars. And none of them are easily adjustable. Hotchkis and Hellwigs rear sway bars are both adjustable with multiple end link positions.

Firm Feel is pretty much the only company that offers a frame hung rear sway bar though. So if that’s the route you want to go they’re pretty much the only game in town.

Firm Feel makes really high quality stuff. And I love their torsion bars, LCA pivot pins, and steering rebuild services. But for me their sway bars just don’t do it. For the price of the Firm Feel bars you could buy Hotchkis, and unless you need to have a frame hung bar I think the Hotchkis bars are better. I guess I just don’t think they’re price competitive for what they are.
 
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I used a Hellwig anti-sway bar on my '72 Duster. I swapped in a late model K frame and lower control arms since I think the late model design works the best.
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PST is a great company to work with and offers a great product. James from PST is a member here and a great guy. He also offers a forum discount. I would call him if I were you and tell him what I was looking for. Be better than fifty different answers.

how do I locate James on FABO? I called over to PST for some guidance and the fellow just directed me back to the web site. Not be salty or anything, but if I could get the answers I needed from the web site, I wouldn’t have called. I am trying to figure out what is/is not needed for rebuilding that K member and LCA.
 
how do I locate James on FABO? I called over to PST for some guidance and the fellow just directed me back to the web site. Not be salty or anything, but if I could get the answers I needed from the web site, I wouldn’t have called. I am trying to figure out what is/is not needed for rebuilding that K member and LCA.

1 800-247-2288 ext 316
jfrom@p-s-t.com
 
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I have the Hotckiss front and rear hollow sway bars and it made a major improvement in handling , well worth it , I thik any sway bars will help , i just went with the lowest weight bars
 
Running Hellwig. But if I wasn’t, I would probably go with PST because of the support here. Support is a dying trend unfortunately.
 
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