To all those with Sway Bars

[Glen]

If you find a cop car get both ends, you will have a matched set that way. They work a lot better. You can get the red poly bushings at Auto Zone or places like that.

[89merk]

If you find a cop car get both ends, you will have a matched set that way. They work a lot better. You can get the red poly bushings at Auto Zone or places like that.

Nice..I will be on the hunt this weekend

[89merk]

Oh and if you find any 140 speedometers from like an '87 Vic or lower, please let me know.

no luck, but still have some more JY to visit next weekend

___________

Question: will the rear sway bar from an 'aero' CV fit my car?

[grandmarquisdriversince98]

What is a good tool to bend the lip on the traction bars so that the police sway bar will fit?

[mrltd]

They are not traction bars. They are control arms.

vice grips, adjustable wrenches, hammers....

[1987cp]

If you do find the smaller rear bar, it's not totally worthless. I put one on my car and it is much better than nothing at all plus it took all of 5 minutes to put on. The smaller one seems to work well with the stock front bar. In the future I may put the cop arms and bar on if I get the big front one to go with it.

That'd be neat to combine with my G-Max aftermarket rear bar. It bolts to the underside of the control arms, so I imagine it should coexist happily alongside any factory-design bar ..... just a little extra "oomph", for that ultimate rear roll stiffness

Hm ... wonder where I'd find a civi rear bar for dirt cheap so I can test that out ..... this is NOT the season to go banging my head on local 'yards .....

[86GmLsCoupe]

You should be able to get one fairly easily since a lot of people don't want to bother with the smaller bar. I got mine from someone on here. If you do try that combo you may want to try finding say the cop or wagon bar for up front to balance out the handling.

[1987cp]

Wagon => wagon bar came stock. Front of the cop car seems stiffer somehow, though .... although, it could easily be the lighter overall weight and 250lb/in-heavier front springs.

[86GmLsCoupe]

Yes indeed, actually from my little research it seems the wagon bar is hollow versus the solid cop bar which means increased torsional stiffness. I'm not 100% on that though so perhaps someone with better knowledge on the subject will fill in. From the sound of it, your set to go with the rear setup then.

[gadget73]

police bar is 1 1/8" solid, wagon is 1 1/8 or 1 3/16 hollow. The solid bar is stiffer, but not by as much as you might think. Most of the torsion comes from the outer diameter of the bar, so you can make one hollow without giving up a whole lot of torsion. It makes it a lot lighter though.

I'm actually considering going back to a smaller front bar, maybe a stock 1" or 7/8" solid bar to neutral the car a bit more. Right now it understeers somewhat, meaning I either need a stiffer rear bar (aftermarket, expensive) or a smaller front bar (cheap, stock and available). It would be an interesting experiement if nothing else, and I could switch it back if I don't like the results.

[Southern_Pride]

I personally think the big rear bar is too soft. On or off it makes no difference in my articulation and that ain't right. Its a big improvement over nothing, but I think there is a lot more to be had from a different design.

[P72Ford]

A hollow front bar could probably be considered more efficient, measured in terms of torsion (axial moment) to bar weight. As Thain said, removing material from the center will lighten the bar considerably, whilst still retaining sufficient torsional charactersitics. The 'resistance to twisting' (lots of people call it lots of different things; I have confused people by calling it the moment) is calculated in terms of the square of the radius of the bar. As one would imagine, material further out from the center of the bar is 'worth' more than material near the center of the bar, in terms of providing an effective sway control.

In the real world, get a police bar if you can. The weight isn't that critical when these yachts weigh 4K+ to begin with.

[p71towny]

Yeah, I want a police front and rear set. Smarty pants said it best ^^^