Torsion bars for stock suspension rebuild

Sway bars tie the two sides of the car together so the suspension can't move independantly of each other. When you turn into a corner the outside supension compresses and the inside wants to un load i.e., body roll. The sway bar will resist the tendancy of the inside to un load and the body to roll.

Your car now has a lot of understeer, that is it wants to plow in a corner to the out side of the turn. Adding a front swaybar reduces the understeer. One that is to big will actually cause the car to go into an oversteer condition or the tendancy for the back end to spin out. Adding a rear bar tends to push the car back towards an understeer condition.

Why do you want to go to manual steering? My Barracuda has manual steering and when it had a \6 it was manageable but now with the 360 it's a bear at slow speeds plus it takes so much input that it will never be quick through transition type maneuvers. I have all the parts to swap to power this winter. I am rebuildding the steering box with Firm Feel's quick ratio guts so I will have a car that steers like a new car with decent feedback and minmimal turns lock to lock.

FWIW, I rebuilt my front end with polygraphite bushings every where but the lower control arms. I got no appreciable improvement in the handling, no noticeable increase in harshness/vibration but within a couple of months the front end started squeaking like an old bed spring. I switch back to rubber when I swapped in the 360.