Pics Needed of Factory Sway Bar on 69 Dart

[1969VADart]

Can anyone share some pictures of how the factory sway bar is mounted on your 69 Dart (or comparable year)? When my suspension guy rebuilt my front suspension, he swapped the original lower control arms out for an already redone set that had end link mounting tabs already welded on. However, I have a suspicion that the LCA's that he swapped onto my K-member are not correct for my year because I don't believe the tabs are in the correct place to mount the end links for the factory sway bar that I have. I should have just made him reinstall the original LCA's and installed the aftermarket bar that I had bought, but I didn't do my homework properly and let him talk me into the LCA's with the tabs already welded on from the factory.

Here is a close up of the LCA he ended up installing.



Here is a picture with the LCA on the K-member.

 

[hemi71x]

Those are 73-76 A Body LCA's with the sway bar mount tabs in that location.

You need LCA's with the mount tabs on them from 65-72 cars.
Those have the tabs welded on at the end of the arm, on the bottom.

 

[mopardude62]

Here is a pic of the lower control arm on my 1967 Barracuda showing the sway bar tab on the end of the arm, outside of the strut rod.

 

[1969VADart]

Figures it would be wrong. I may have to let it ride for now. Are the dimensions (length in particular) the same for the different LCA's so that they should still work without the sway bar obviously being installed? Thanks for the insight.

 

[Jim Lusk]

Your suspension guy OWES you the correct arms. I wouldn't drive one of these cars without a sway bar...

 

[krazykuda]

If you paid a "suspension guy" to do the job, you didn't get what you paid for. He should put the originals back on with fresh bushings...

This guy is no expert on suspensions if he mads that mistake...

 

[junior636]

Figures it would be wrong. I may have to let it ride for now. Are the dimensions (length in particular) the same for the different LCA's so that they should still work without the sway bar obviously being installed? Thanks for the insight.

They are identical, only difference is the sway bar tab.

 

[67Dart273]

Your suspension guy OWES you the correct arms. I wouldn't drive one of these cars without a sway bar...

If you paid a "suspension guy" to do the job, you didn't get what you paid for. He should put the originals back on with fresh bushings...

This guy is no expert on suspensions if he mads that mistake...

X2 ^^This is the way I see it.^^

Only exception is if you plan on swapping the K for a 73/ later spool mount K, which needs the different tabs and a different bar setup. But you mentioned aftermarket bar? Then you'd want your old LCAs I'd guess. That is you can run either early or late bar with a 73 K, if you have the early LCAs and fab (simple) bar mounts onto the bottom of the K.

 

[1969VADart]

X2 ^^This is the way I see it.^^

Only exception is if you plan on swapping the K for a 73/ later spool mount K, which needs the different tabs and a different bar setup. But you mentioned aftermarket bar? Then you'd want your old LCAs I'd guess. That is you can run either early or late bar with a 73 K, if you have the early LCAs and fab (simple) bar mounts onto the bottom of the K.

I have a stock sway bar that came off of a 69 Dart. I am definitely not swapping K members. I also have a PST sway bar that I had bought last summer when I had my suspension redone. Of course, I bought the sway bar but didn't do enough homework to realize the difference in the tabs on the LCA's. That was my mistake in the first place.

 

[RedFish]

The original sway bar was a long skinny "limber timber" bar. Its forward mounts hang too low also. Most aftermarket bars attach to a 'L' bracket attached at lower shock bolt so neither factory attach clip location is used or req'd.
Unless this is a show car, I would buy a better aftermarket bar and sell that OEM bar. Someone will want it since even the limber bar is better than no bar at all.