Normal resting position for sway bar?

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MRGTX

MRGTX

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I don’t have any other modded mopars around to reference so I’m hoping for a quick sanity check. Is the sway bar supposed to be sticking down this far?

The Hellwig hollow sway bar was installed a couple years back, seems to be doing its job. Possibly relevant, the car is also running a bit lower than stock, QA1 upper and lower control arms…

It has always looked wrong to me but since it’s working, I haven’t bothered to look into it until now. I flew blind (aside from advice on this forum) on pretty much everything I’ve done on this car, relying on the simplicity of these cars, common sense, and mechanical empathy. I’m sure there are mistakes here and there.

Thanks for any info.
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Shorten the link or take the spacer all the way out, do what it takes. If you put it above it might hit the strut rod.
 
I've always read the best position for the bar is parallel with the ground when viewed from the side. IMO, they work in different positions, but that one is supposed to be "best".

Then, there are some that say the bar should be parallel with the strut rod. I'm sure it's probably mentioned in the MP suspension book somewhere. Mine is buried in a small book case under a bunch of furniture, or I'd dig it out for you and look.
 
Sometimes you can shorten the link to resolve the issue. The bar pivots are fixed, meaning the arms of the bar swing in an arc, this arc might not allow the holes of the arm and bar to line up and allow the link to fit. You'd need to move the bar mounts, modify the bar or move the link mounts on the lower arm to get it right. With that, sometimes the strut rods get in the way. Its a best effort deal, unless you willing to build new mounts placing the bar parallel to the ground and line the links up horizontally but that might have some limitations too.
 
are the sway bar brackets on the control arms upside down/left for right? maybe early a-body LCA's?
I think the brackets are the same, just swapped left/right and flipped over. So would it help to cut the brackets off and flip flop them?
 
When I lowered my car to 5.5 from the lowest part of the K at the center with 245/50-15 tires; My bar looked like that too.
The thing is, lowering with the T-bars moves the LCA away from parallel to the ground. Which reduces the upward travel of the wheel and swaps it to downward travel.
So now, when you are in a corner with the weight shifted to the outboard corner, that corner sits on the bumpstop, while on the other side, the wheel is sorta hanging at the end of the shock travel. So what exactly is the bar doing? Yeah, not much.
Itwill take a lotta T-bar and stiff shocks to prevent this.
In the meantime, your camber curve is taking a chitkicking. Ok mine was.
So installed 235/60-14s, and I put the front-end back up to 6 inches. Then realigned my swaybar to closer to level at rest. I like the way the car corners now, better than before. Allbeit, the new tires don't stick as well as the previous ones; so I have learned a lil about frontend drifting.

In order for the S-bar to work thru it's range of motion without tearing the links apart, the bar has to be in a specific position relative to the tabs on the LCA. I got lucky and mine was pretty close. But the shorter you make the links, the more important this will become.
I encourage you to cycle the suspension from full jounce to fill rebound, and see what needs to be done.
BTW, my car is a streeter so ideal and close enough are about the same thing, lol.
 
I just installed the Hellwig 55905 on my 69 Dart and had the same issue w/the low hanging bar with the materials supplied. To complicate things, I have the later k-frame w/earlier LCA w/no tabs. The LCA’s had a raised rib where the tabs wouldn’t sit flush. I had to cut the lower portion of the tab off and welded them to the LCA’s. I also had to cut down the spacers and get shorter bolts so that the bar wouldn’t hang too low. I pretty much aligned the bar parallel to the struts. What a difference cornering, no mo body roll. A worthwhile investment for a street car.

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pntastar69 said:
I just installed the Hellwig 55905 on my 69 Dart and had the same issue w/the low hanging bar with the materials supplied. To complicate things, I have the later k-frame w/earlier LCA w/no tabs. The LCA’s had a raised rib where the tabs wouldn’t sit flush. I had to cut the lower portion of the tab off and welded them to the LCA’s. I also had to cut down the spacers and get shorter bolts so that the bar wouldn’t hang too low. I pretty much aligned the bar parallel to the struts. What a difference cornering, no mo body roll. A worthwhile investment for a street car.

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That bar seems awfully short to me, like it's for the early A. Those brackets should attach to the shock bolts, I believe.
 
I see it on their site now. I guess because your arms didn't have the brackets, that makes the bar appear short. You did a nice job overcoming that.
 
Nothing is plug and play on these cars. I have a Addco sway bars and the only thing I used was the bars and the front angle and plate, the rest is either from someone else or custom made by me.
 
RustyRatRod said:
That bar seems awfully short to me, like it's for the early A. Those brackets should attach to the shock bolts, I believe.
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It's because it is for the later spool mount k-frame. Those mount inside the strut rod while the earlier k-frame had the sway bar link outside the strut rods.
 
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