sway bars

[Jesse 67 c-10]

was at the local dump a couple days ago and noticed a really heavy duty looking sway bar in the metal pile, It is a gm product, I'm guessing to have come off a grain truck or some other solid front axle truck. Needless to say its fairly beefy! in fine condition. I want to use it for the rear of my truck and I have figured out a pretty slick way to mount it behind my rear axle. Wondering though if I should figure out a way to make up for the radial deflection, since the arc of the susp and the arc of the sway bar are opposite, will the bushings take up this movement, or will I end up with a really harsh ride from the suspension binding? The sway bar has eyes on the end that a bolt and rubber bushings would go through and the bar will be attached with rubber bushings to the frame. Any ideas? previous experience? Does anyone have a setup from a place like early classic, how is it mounted and how much of a handling improvement did you notice? Phew! lots of questions but hopefully I'll get this figured out, and have a truck that handles as good as it goes! I'll post some pics when it's all done
Thanks
Jesse

[68 Suburban]

Im not an expert, but I don't think you want your rear sway bar "beefier" than your front sway bar.

[Longhorn Man]

I agree with 68...I have never seen a factory set up like that, nor a road racer.
I'm thinking that with most of the weight over the front, it is going to lean more, so that is where you put most anti-lean efforts. If the back stays level in a turn, but the front is leaning real bads...just sounds nasty to me.
But like said before..not an expert.

[68 Suburban]

Here are a couple of links from low69cst. He has intalled a rear sway bar from a 3rd generation Camaro.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ight=rear+sway

http://www.low69cst.freeservers.com/CamaroBar.htm

[Low69CST]

I have an 89 camaro bar on my truck. It won't bind up. Lots of vehicles that have simular rear suspensions like these trucks have them on and don't bind. Its not as easy as you think to slap on a sway bar. Theres lots of moving parts, exhaust, springs, shocks, gas tanks that you have to work around. Also you have to pay attention to keeping the sway bar centered and even and making brackets that are rigid and look half way decent. I spent about 3 weeks working on my camaro bar.

If you get a bar thats too stiff on the rear of your truck, it'll be dangerous. Espeically if you have relatively narrow tires on. Each time you go around a corner the back of your truck will be swinging around. If you have a sway bar in the front, your rear needs to a little smaller because the front is much heavier than the rear. If you have an average front sway bar and a really beefy rear bar your gonna have a handfull to drive.

[Jesse 67 c-10]

The bar is 1 1/16th" in diameter, the "arms" on it are about 2 feet long so there is some leverage there to twist the bar, I'm going to get a front one off a 1 ton truck too. The way I'll mount it is a very easy bolt on, so if it doesn't work or makes thing scary I can take it off no prob. It's a straight bar, the ends will go into sway bar bushings bolted to a heavy piece of square tubing which will be bolted to the overload spring pads behind the axle, and the bar will bolt with bushings right to the frame around where the frame brackets for the overloads used to be. I'm thinking I might need links between the ends of the bar and the peice of tubing though to make up for the radial deflection, How are the ends of your bar attached to the frame low69? I should use a similar set up to that. Thanks for the info and pics, I'll see what I can figure out!
Jesse

[Low69CST]

I tried a simular thing to what your talking about. Good luck with it. Heres a pic of how one side hooks to the frame. I have a complete webpage on how I did the bar listed above by 68 suburban. The bracket you see above is a camaro bracket. The frame was too narrow so I got an inch and something aluminum block to push the bracket out to meet the endlink for the sway bar.