Addco sway bar

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J

jfaabody

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Trying to install an addco 150 sway bar on my 72 duster, The car didn't come with a sway bar but I changed over the LCA to ones with tabs. Can I use those to mount the sway bars, It doesn't seem to line up. Anyone use these & have pics? The instructions are terrible!!!!
Thanks
John
 
You MAY have the wrong lower control arms!
There were 2 designs. The first sway bar design connected out near the lower ball joint. The 1973-76 design connected in a few inches, near the lower bolt for the shock. Its possible that you have a sway bar for 1972 and older cars but have 1973 and later lower control arms. The solution? either change the LCAs or the K member.
 
The Addco bars point their ends at the lower shock bolts, and supply angle bracket "tabs" which mount there. That would have the early factory tabs too far outboard, and the later tabs too far inboard. You could either cold form (bend) the sway bar ends to line up with your tabs, or use the supplied angle brackets. You want the bar level and the links straight up and down with the weight on the wheels.

Although Addco doesn't really mention it in their instructions, their Erector Set bracketry can be greatly improved with a few tack welds once everything is lined up.
 
I ran into a similar problem on my 67 vert Cuda. Though the sway bar is probably OK if you use oe style mounting brackets, the supplied brackets (which install vertically) place the bar about 2" too far away from the LCA to align the bolt/bushings to it. The problem prevented me from being able to install the link bolts/bushings. You can either play around and bend the sway bar link bolts, or make a small adapter plate. I made the plate myself, using a grade 8 1/2" bolt to connect the plate to the sway bar end eye and then just attached the straight link bolt to the LCA and the plate. It seemed that my misalignment was 2", so I made the c to c spacing of the plate holes right at 2". One hole was 5/8" and the other was made at 1/2" to match the grade 8 bolt. This method essentially made the sway bar 2" longer than it was originally. FYI - I used welded on tabs in the factory tab locations on the LCAs, not the shock absorber brackets that were supplied with the sway bar (they also had the same misalignment problem).

Good luck!
 
So you're saying the Addco bar is generic and
will fit eather or with some bending?
I've got a 70 Swinger with the mounts in the
outboard position and wanted to use their bar
on the front to match the rear Addco I have.
Even the mounting is changed in the front?
 
So is there a better brand that will bolt right on? It seems like this should be a no brainer, easy install but...
 
I can only guess that any brand sway bar that does not use mounts that are identical to the original mounts will be a problem. All I know for sure is that the ones that use the vertical mounts supported in the lower original K-member mount bolt holes, will end up being short in my experience.
 
I posted in the B forum about the GM 1 1/4" sway bar that I modified to use in my Charger. I also did the same for a Duster and a Dart. Check it out. "C H E A P sway bar upgrade".
 
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