Brothers sway bar

[BamaDave]

(Edit: This is a Addco sway bar, I should have titled this thread as such)

I recently bought a sway bar from Brothers. It is a 1 1/8" bar. Maybe I should have looked into it a little more, but the instructions look like a kid put them together. There is a drawing accompanying the instructions. According to the illustration, I am supposed to drill one hole in the LCA and bolt the "angle bracket" to the LCA. If you look at the link to the instructions you can see what I mean. This looks like a bad idea. Can anyone tell me if I should do this or if there is another way to make this thing work. Would the "bracket" not constantly be moving side to side while the arms are traveling up and down? My truck didn't come with a factory sway, so I am not sure if my LCA's have the holes already there for the factory version.


http://static.summitracing.com/globa...ns/aco-117.pdf

[Stepper86]

I guess I will run in to the same problem as you Dave. I have one of these on the way, crap......
My truck has the original swaybar mounts, they sit on top of the lower LCA in a rubber bushing. Your arms are probably the same as mine with two threaded holes were the OM bracket and bushing is attached.
I think I will fabricate a bracket that attach to the original holes and to the side of the LCA, the angle supplied in the kit looks flimsy.
Now I will beat my self up for not looking more in to it before ordering

[BamaDave]

I just looked at mine and all the holes are there on the LCA and the frame.

[grs]

It should just mount to your LCA. If it doesn't then return it.

[Stepper86]

I finaly had time to have a look at the swaybars, BamaDave you were right the instructions really are a joke, and the bar and hardware included in the kit don´t really look like it was intended for our trucks. But I think I found a way to install it.
After a cup of coffe and some thinking I decided to ditch the "anglebar" A-arm bracket that came in the kit and move the whole bar closer towards the front axle so that I could attach it straight trough the A-arm.
I had to grind off one of the corners on the bump stop bracket, but in the end it lined up quite well. I forgot my camera so I will post pictures later.
If I was living in the states I would have sent this kit back and looked for a better one.

[BamaDave]

I would love to see some pics when u get it done. I figured on trying what u you are going to do, but have not tried yet. I don't know how the best way of attaching it to the LCA. IT t looks as if the head of a bolt won't fit on the bottom side of the arm?
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[Stepper86]

Took some pictures today. You can see how I grinded off one side of the flange that holds the bumpstop. I left just enough so that the spotwelds are still intact.
It looks really tight on the picture, but it´s not that bad. I had a friend push the truck down so I could see how it was acting during travel, and I could see it hit anything.
The end of the bar sits higher than the metal bracket holding the bumpstop, so if it was to hit something during travel it would be the rubber, but even when we jacked up one side of the truck to bottom out the suspension it looked fine.

And before someone mentions it, I know that the spring on driver side sits wrong in the crossmember, I noticed when I was taking pictures. Will fix that tomorrow

[masterlock]

The sway bar looks good, Im not sure how much grinding and modifying you had to do but I know that kit is a bit pricey. Just wanted to mention what I just did to my truck for those looking to add a sway bar. Went to the junk yard grabbed a sway bar off a truck ($30), bought c10 swaybar brackets from LMC ($20), bought sway bar mounts from energy suspension($20?). All those parts will allow you to mount a factory sway bar the way it was designed to be mounted with no grinding or anything.

[Stepper86]

It was not that much, I had to remove the factory brackets and drill 2 holes in the A-arms. I spendt more time measuring, than it acualy took to install it once I had it were I wanted it.
That said I do not think the kit is very good, the suplied brackets are not great quality and the instructions are really bad. I do not belive the guy who wrote them ever installed a swaybar.
When I bought this kit it was on sale, I got front and rear bars for 250$ shipped to my door. So I can´t complain about the price, it was half of anything I could find localy here in Sweden.

[mcboomport]

My belltech sway bar mounts the same way. There is nothing wrong with the end link setup. I prefer it. The only drilling required is so the bushings sit in the lca.
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[mcboomport]

The factory bumpstops need grinded/ airchisled off if you lower your vehicle as well. It is a pain to remove them, but not all our trucks have them.
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[Stepper86]

Is the Belltech bar as wide as this one? I mean, did you end up drilling the holes in LCA as close to the bump stop as I had to?