Steve Clason
Well-Known Member
So I wanted to replace my sway bar links on my 1966 Barracuda. I ordered new parts but when they came in it seem they are either wrong or the car came to me with wrong parts. Should my links be 4 inch or 8 inch?
Sway bar linkage
- Thread starter Steve Clason
- Start date
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I’ve got several OEM links that I can measure/photograph tomorrow if you’d like
Steve Clason
Well-Known Member
That would be a great help
Steve Clason
Well-Known Member
Steve Clason
Well-Known Member
Good thing to check. The shorter will make it more horizontal than the longer ones. I will double check that tomorrow.
Oh.
Well, that might (?) be a stock sway bar but there’s nothing stock about that sway bar tab.
That bushing arrangement leaves some things to be desired too.
Looks like you have a home brewed sway bar tab, and it’s unlikely that what should fit your car will actually fit what you have going on there. You’re probably going to have to come up with your own solution, and while it will have to be shorter than the new ones you’ve got I don’t recommend copying what you’ve got in there now.
Steve Clason
Well-Known Member
Oh boy creative linkage!
Can you take a picture from a bit further back? Showing more of the sway bar and LCA.
This is the sway bar and linkage from a '65, courtesy member @dibbons in this other thread [Found!] - Early Barracuda Sway Bar Help . The ends of the sway bar are definitely not level but I wouldn't worry too much about that, that's an "ideal" thing and it looks like the early A's didn't subscribe to that philosophy.
Based on this arrangement I might try to just use the longer end links you have, but make sure that everything clears the strut rods when the suspension goes up and down. Shorter end links would be better, but you want something that looks like the new end links you have with a shorter middle section, not what's currently on there.
Steve Clason
Well-Known Member
Here is a different picture
Ok, that doesn't look terrible. It looks like you have a stock sway bar and brackets in there, it's just that the sway bar tabs were added. That bottom picture is actually pretty close to how you'd want the sway bar to sit. I think you'd be ok with the end links you have, but if It were mine I'd buy a set of these
Energy Suspension 9.8122G Energy Suspension Sway Bar End Link Sets | Summit Racing
The middle section between the bushings on those would be 1", and I think with the bushings you'd probably end up pretty close to that bottom picture. That kit will have poly bushings but you could just swap on the rubber ones from the end links you've already got.
Are those tabs bolted onto the LCA's?
Steve Clason
Well-Known Member
No the tabs are welded to the LCAs. Summit sounds like a good solution . My other thought was to cut down the sleeve and get a different set of bolts.
Yeah that would work just fine too, wasn’t sure if those were just bolts with sleeves or something more specialized. But you can definitely just cut the sleeves down and replace the bolts, done the same thing myself. Or order the ones from summit if you don’t want to mess with it. If you go to summit the second picture on the part is a list of part numbers and sleeve lengths in case you need something different.
Steve Clason
Well-Known Member
Perfect thanks for your help!
I'd try a set of correct end links first and see if that would work. The welded on tabs look like they have lasted like that a long time and that the holes in the tabs are at least close to the stock position.
The thing is, you have to have some length to the end link in order for it to take up the difference in motion between the LCA as it pivots in a plane perpendicular to the direction of travel, and the sway bar arm, which pivots in a plane parallel to the wheel disk. The rubber bushings are there so that the vertical shaft of the end link can basically wobble this way, then that, at each end independently. But if the shaft is so short that the bushing cups are touching, there is no slack in the system — the ends will bind up and harshly limit the travel of the LCA. To put it another way, the motion of the end link is not straight up and down as a unit — the top travels in an arc, and the bottom travels in an arc perpendicular to the top’s arc.
Would pictures of an original 66 sway bar set up help? Let me know and I'll take some.
Steve Clason
Well-Known Member
Yes that would help. My parts books have every model except The Barracuda
That's true, and a good reason to get rid of the end link/bushing set up that was on the car previously.
But realistically you're only talking about ~2.5" of travel in each direction, so it's not like you need to have something anywhere near as tall as the factory end links to cover the divergence in the arcs. It’s not that much in that relatively short distance.
This is the set up that I’ve been running for years and tens of thousands of miles, it doesn’t bind up the LCA and those are poly bushings. Obviously you don’t want to interfere with the motion of the LCA, but the more “give” that you have in the bushings and end links the less active your sway bar will be. There are tons of heim jointed sway bar end links out there.
Original 1966 Formula S front sway bar setup.
Steve Clason
Well-Known Member
Many thanks that helps
Not disagreeing... a short link with the ends free to move is all that is required. It was the set-up pictured, with zero free length and the bushings squashed, that prompted my dissertation. Actually, your solution looks a lot like mine — I used heim joints instead of bushings, trying to adapt a somewhat poor fitting Addco sway bar.
cudamark
Well-Known Member
Those aren't factory end links either, they're aftermarket replacements. Here's what an original factory link looks like.
cudamark
Well-Known Member
Also, the factory original lower control arms on a '65 and '66 have a built-in extra washer around the sway bar hole on the lower side of the arm. '67-up arms don't have that washer They interchange however.
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