Sway Bar yes or no

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I8NEMO

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Im revisiting the idea of a sway bar. Now, im probably a year or 2 away from finished paint, assembly and driving. My car is a 68 Notch with a fresh 340. Ive upgraded the front with QA1 LCA and POL UCA including a 2" drop spindle with DBs. I assume with a lower stance, a sway bar would help potential tire rub in turning/ curb situations. Would you A: drive the car first and do a sway bar after, or B: go ahead and install one now?

Thanks much
Tim
 
what are you doing with the car?

i can tell you on our dart i have been running 1" bars for years with no swap bar pretty much because i was just too lazy to buy and install one. thought the car handled pretty well and stayed pretty flat in corners.. early in 2020 i finally broke down and bought a hellwig 5906 (1 1/8") sway bar for it and installed it. the difference was very noticeable.. the car is a lot flatter in corners now. just feels a lot better to me.. i'm not sure that piacular bar will fit your car with the qa1 lower arms.

IMG_20200420_101745.jpg


IMG_20200420_113657.jpg


IMG_20200420_121103.jpg
 
With the QA1 lower control arms, are there any mounting tabs for a bar? If so are they for the 72-down bar or the 73-up? This will correlate to what K-Frame you have for mounting.

Below is my 69 with an Addco bar and 72-down stock arms. It has a small "dog leg" in it to clear lock to lock. I guess it will depend on the bar, wheel offset and wire width. This is a 17x7 with a 215 wide tire.

upload_2021-2-1_6-12-3.png
 
What is the intended use/purpose of the car? street/strip or handling/touring?

If you want it to handle, add the sway bar.
 
With the QA1 lower control arms, are there any mounting tabs for a bar? If so are they for the 72-down bar or the 73-up? This will correlate to what K-Frame you have for mounting.

Below is my 69 with an Addco bar and 72-down stock arms. It has a small "dog leg" in it to clear lock to lock. I guess it will depend on the bar, wheel offset and wire width. This is a 17x7 with a 215 wide tire.

View attachment 1715681682
Dano
What shock is that on your ride?
Sorry for the hijack, me bad
 
what are you doing with the car?

i can tell you on our dart i have been running 1" bars for years with no swap bar pretty much because i was just too lazy to buy and install one. thought the car handled pretty well and stayed pretty flat in corners.. early in 2020 i finally broke down and bought a hellwig 5906 (1 1/8") sway bar for it and installed it. the difference was very noticeable.. the car is a lot flatter in corners now. just feels a lot better to me.. i'm not sure that piacular bar will fit your car with the qa1 lower arms.
Thanks! My plan is to street the car and have fun. No track time, no corner carving but I do appreciate the feel of a firm correct handling car
 
With the QA1 lower control arms, are there any mounting tabs for a bar? If so are they for the 72-down bar or the 73-up? This will correlate to what K-Frame you have for mounting.

Below is my 69 with an Addco bar and 72-down stock arms. It has a small "dog leg" in it to clear lock to lock. I guess it will depend on the bar, wheel offset and wire width. This is a 17x7 with a 215 wide tire.

View attachment 1715681682
With the QA1 lower control arms, are there any mounting tabs for a bar? If so are they for the 72-down bar or the 73-up? This will correlate to what K-Frame you have for mounting.

Below is my 69 with an Addco bar and 72-down stock arms. It has a small "dog leg" in it to clear lock to lock. I guess it will depend on the bar, wheel offset and wire width. This is a 17x7 with a 215 wide tire.

View attachment 1715681682
LCA is PN 52307, not sure how that correlates to 72-down/73-up. Wheels are 17 x 9's
what are you doing with the car?

i can tell you on our dart i have been running 1" bars for years with no swap bar pretty much because i was just too lazy to buy and install one. thought the car handled pretty well and stayed pretty flat in corners.. early in 2020 i finally broke down and bought a hellwig 5906 (1 1/8") sway bar for it and installed it. the difference was very noticeable.. the car is a lot flatter in corners now. just feels a lot better to me.. i'm not sure that piacular bar will fit your car with the qa1 lower arms.

With the QA1 lower control arms, are there any mounting tabs for a bar? If so are they for the 72-down bar or the 73-up? This will correlate to what K-Frame you have for mounting.

Below is my 69 with an Addco bar and 72-down stock arms. It has a small "dog leg" in it to clear lock to lock. I guess it will depend on the bar, wheel offset and wire width. This is a 17x7 with a 215 wide tire.

View attachment 1715681682
Looks like ive got the mount tab, QA1 p.n. 52307, not sure how that correlates to 72- down, 73- up
 
With the QA1 lower control arms, are there any mounting tabs for a bar? If so are they for the 72-down bar or the 73-up? This will correlate to what K-Frame you have for mounting.

Below is my 69 with an Addco bar and 72-down stock arms. It has a small "dog leg" in it to clear lock to lock. I guess it will depend on the bar, wheel offset and wire width. This is a 17x7 with a 215 wide tire.

View attachment 1715681682

LCA is PN 52307, not sure how that correlates to 72-down/73-up. Wheels are 17 x 9's



Looks like ive got the mount tab, QA1 p.n. 52307, not sure how that correlates to 72- down, 73- up

The QA1 LCA’s have sway bar tabs. Their location is very similar to the 73+ factory locations. It’s not identical, but it’s close enough that bars intended for 73+ factory sway bar tabs work just fine, usually with a shorter end link because of the height profile difference of the tubular LCA’s compared to stock.

If you have a 67-72 K frame, you’ll need the Hotchkis 67-72 front sway bar or the Hellwig 55917. Both will work with the QA1 LCA sway bar tab location.

If you’re going to run 17” rims with decent tires you will probably benefit from the sway bars. It will depend on your tire choice and torsion bars, and there’s nothing wrong with driving through car first. But you’re probably going to benefit from the sway bars.
 
The QA1 LCA’s have sway bar tabs. Their location is very similar to the 73+ factory locations. It’s not identical, but it’s close enough that bars intended for 73+ factory sway bar tabs work just fine, usually with a shorter end link because of the height profile difference of the tubular LCA’s compared to stock.

If you have a 67-72 K frame, you’ll need the Hotchkis 67-72 front sway bar or the Hellwig 55917. Both will work with the QA1 LCA sway bar tab location.

If you’re going to run 17” rims with decent tires you will probably benefit from the sway bars. It will depend on your tire choice and torsion bars, and there’s nothing wrong with driving through car first. But you’re probably going to benefit from the sway bars.


Much thanks, I sure appreciate your experience. Looks like I'm sway bar shopping while rear brake parts ship. Looks like the sway bar frame mounts get drilled and through bolted ?
 
Thanks! My plan is to street the car and have fun. No track time, no corner carving but I do appreciate the feel of a firm correct handling car

thats what we do with our car.. i haver a chevy friend that drove it before and after the sway bar and he really liked it.. he's like i could so daily drive this thing..lol
 
With the QA1 lower control arms, are there any mounting tabs for a bar? If so are they for the 72-down bar or the 73-up? This will correlate to what K-Frame you have for mounting.

Below is my 69 with an Addco bar and 72-down stock arms. It has a small "dog leg" in it to clear lock to lock. I guess it will depend on the bar, wheel offset and wire width. This is a 17x7 with a 215 wide tire.

View attachment 1715681682

Here is my set up, with QA1 control arms and QA1 sway bar...

upload_2021-2-1_10-0-36.png
upload_2021-2-1_10-1-22.png
 
Much thanks, I sure appreciate your experience. Looks like I'm sway bar shopping while rear brake parts ship. Looks like the sway bar frame mounts get drilled and through bolted ?

Pretty much, the mounts are a little different depending on which bar you get.

Why the drop spindles? If you use torsion bars large enough to give you the handling you want you’ll be able to lower it without them. And they increase bump steer and decrease your clearance for wider tires. They basically make your wheel to suspension clearance the same as 15’s for your backspace because of where it puts the rim with respect to the upper ball joint.

Here is my set up, with QA1 control arms and QA1 sway bar...

View attachment 1715681800View attachment 1715681804

The QA1 sway bar only works with the QA1 K-member.
 
Pretty much, the mounts are a little different depending on which bar you get.

Why the drop spindles? If you use torsion bars large enough to give you the handling you want you’ll be able to lower it without them. And they increase bump steer and decrease your clearance for wider tires. They basically make your wheel to suspension clearance the same as 15’s for your backspace because of where it puts the rim with respect to the upper ball joint.



The QA1 sway bar only works with the QA1 K-member.
Yeah, I went with the drop spindles obviously to get the nose down assuming that sagging the T bars would negatively affect steering castor, camber etc. Basically my ignorance. Getting the rake and stance I wanted was job 1 when I started. I'll show you the before/after pics. shocking how high the car was stock in hindsight

Factory SUspension no engine weight.jpg


2 inch spindle drop springs dearched 1 inch block.jpg
 
So with the drop spindles, you think a sway bars gonna be a road scraper?
 
So with the drop spindles, you think a sway bars gonna be a road scraper?

Not necessarily. That’s the thing, and one of the reasons I tell people to skip the drop spindles. You can get just as low of a ride height without them if you’re running larger torsion bars. And the suspension geometry is better lowered with the adjusters than it is with drop spindles.

I ran drop spindles on my Challenger for a long time thinking I needed them for the ride height. After learning more about them I found I was able to drop that car just as low without them because of the 1.12” bars I was running.

With an A-body the maximum drop is usually limited by the inner wheel wells. My Duster is at the maximum, at full suspension compression there’s 13” from the spindle to the inner fender. So a 26” tall tire would kiss the inner fender with the suspension fully bottomed.

I’d just sell the drop spindles and buy a set of 1.12” torsion bars. Especially with the Hotchkis shocks, that combo works great for me
 
In my opinion, every car on the road should have at least a front anit-sway bar. In my "yute" I've owned a number which did not. There's a reason the older cars did not handle all that well, and a bar is one
 
Hey guys the Addco front sway bar I found for $197. 1.125" dia. powder coated black bolt in. Hotchkis unit is 1.5" P coated as well $297 with weld in K brackets. I'm thinking Addco will suffice. Thoughts?
 
Even a stock bar should be fine for what you are doing, you could likely get one cheap.
 
The addco 67-72 Addco sway bar uses the stock 67-72 sway bar tab location. It will not work with the QA1 LCA’s.
 
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