i am in the middle of a 37 ford pickup build, and i relize that im going to need some sway bars. i am keeping the original suspension, and i might put on some longer shackels in the rear. just want to see what you guys have in you old hot rods.
I have a '40 coupe with stock type suspension, I used a Chassis Engineering front sway bar kit & a Bob Drake sway bar & shock kit on the rear. Between the two kits it really tightened up the old Ford & improved the handling a great amount. It was worth the work.
Will adding sway bars make much difference if the chassis is not boxed or constructed to be rigid enough???
I put front and rear sway bars on my '40 Ford Sedan Delivery long ago and it stiffened up the roll to be like a NASCAR. One night in the curve of a wet road, I had to snap the wheel right in order to avoid an on coming car. The old S/D went around on me and we wound up parked next to a fence post. Moral of the story: I think the dual bars made it too stiff. On my current '36 pickup, I could not put a front sway bar on, so I put on a rear. It works great. I also have used the CE front sway bars alone, and they work great. So, I think putting two on is over kill that might get you in trouble. One, front or rear, work well.
thanks for the sugestions. i defenitley need a sway bar because i removed half the leafs from the spring and now it is not nearly as stiff as it was earlier.
Sway bars come in a wide range of diameters to help you fine tune the vehicle to your taste. The goal is to have a "neutral" feel to the car, less body roll and a more comfortable drive. My O/T autocross Camaro has a 1 7/8 front and a 1 1/8 rear. Too stiff for extended road duty but a slot car on the pavement. There are 2 different schools of thought on sway bars. A stiff spring needs a softer sway bar while a softer spring needs a stiffer bar.
I put a rear sway bar under an O/T TR6 I once owned. The change was incredible! Stiffened up the little monster to the point you could drive it with the throttle! I intend to install a rear bar on my 47 when I find one that works on the stock rear suspension.
I don't have any pictures that are going to show any real detail. I used a Blazer rear in my truck build and while pulling the rear at the salvage yard I found the Blazer sway bar measurements to be about right for my F100. For around $20 I got the bar, all the links and mounting hardware. I did have to modify the links for the sway bar, but it was pretty much drill a few holes and bolt it in. Since my front suspension is Chevelle, I just used the stock front sway bar.
One thing that was not addressed is how tire technology affects the use of sway bars. Bias ply tires weren't designed to hold the road the way a radial does so they didn't need big sway bars... Also, if the rear bar is as strong or stronger you'll find the car likes to oversteer a lot... Which is a lot of fun if you like donuts, not so great in panic situations...
I'm getting ready to install a rear sway bar on my '39 2-Door Sedan Deluxe. I have taken a couple leafs out and reversed the eyes of the rear spring. The front is a 4" dropped I-beam with no sway bar as of yet and don't know if I'll add one. I have a '40 front sway bar that I went through great pains to get and found out that, with the '58 Chevy 283 in it, it won't work. It's an old hot rod that I'm tryin' to keep that way. I'm hoping that this will solve some of the horrible body roll. Maybe I'll take some pics of the process. I have already found that I will have to reroute the exhaust pipes where the sway bar will be.
Had them F&R on my 66 Fairlane convertible with BBF, handled so much nicer than just a single front bar. Added them F&R to my 35 Chevy phaeton and again handles a lot better. Neither is driven like a track or auto cross car, just good daily drivers with minimal body roll. To make things better and improve all round handling I added all new suspension bushing, spring saddles, shock absorbers, balljoints etc Adding F&R again to my 46 Olds sedanette. Old habits die hard when you get to my age you appreciate some creature comforts and handling.
I know this is not a 1:1 correlation with your project, but I had a conversation with Fatmans when I ordered a complete IFS kit from them. I mentioned I wanted them to include a sway bar kit with their IFS kit. He said " you will not need a sway bar in front with this application. Use a sway bar in the rear only". Now the guy could have sold me a sway bar kit and made more money off me and I'd have been none the wiser. So maybe you should consult an aftermarket suspension supplier and get their opinions on what you'll nee for your application. As 56tbird related in his experience above it is possible to have too much roll stability. Its been years since I had my last Vehicle Dynamics course but I recollect that distributing the tire loading evenly over the four tires means that as you approach the limit of adhesion on an aggressive turn that all four tires tend to break free at the same instant - bad for maintaining control of the vehicle; whereas if there is more body lean and hence more weight transfer to the outside tires then they will break free before the inside tires do, thereby leaving the driver with some measure of control of the car. This is an oversimplified explanation without regard to other factors (e.g. roll centers, spring rates, etc.) but I hope it helps.
The term "sway bar" is a misnomer, and people are on this thread as well as elsewhere using it for 2 entirely different suspension parts and pieces. Better and more descriptive names are anti-roll bar and panhard bar. The panhard bar helps keep the frame and suspension in side to side, or lateral alignment by having one end fastened to the frame and the other end fastened to the axle, which greatly reduces side to side sway. An anti-roll bar is a transversely mounted torsion bar fastened to the frame on each side and then turns longtitudal, or fore and aft, and then attached to the axle. The mounting points are pivots that allow up and down movement freely, but when the vehicle is in a turn and tries to lean over, this twists the anti-roll bar and it utilizes that twist to try to compress the spring on the inboard side of the turn, thereby reducing body roll. Hence the term anti-roll bar. Panhard bars are needed when you have a transverse spring with shackles too long that droop down and induce side to side movement of the body and frame in relation to the axle. Also necessary on many types of coil spring rear suspension, unless the trailing arms are angled enough to resist side to side movement. Actually, sway bar is more descriptive of the actual function of a panhard bar, than it is when you call an anti-roll bar a sway bar, but using the correct term for both eliminates the situation here in this thread and elsewhere, where you have people writing about 2 different components with 2 entirely different functions in the same thread.
Sway is car body moving laerally above the wheels. Roll, apparently what is being discussed here, is car body leaning over on its axis above the wheels. There ARE anti roll bars with rigid liks capable of resisting sway, but not here. Confusing the terms is a result of bad writing by the comic book grade car magazines...and makes actual discussion difficult.
I like your analogy about comic book writers Bruce, and your comment is totally true about the confusion it causes The OP was most likely talking about a panhard bar, as he was discussing putting long shackles on a '37 Ford pickup. But by the time a post or two had been posted, the discussion turned towards anti-roll bars. This is why Iprefer to term them as panhard bars and anti-roll bars, as it seems to lessen confusion..\
Ok, this is a lot more discussion than what I was looking for when I searched to see if anyone had installed a Bob Drake rear sway bar on their '36-40. Yet, I love it all, on the information highway and the helpfulness of the HAMB members! I've completed my install on my '39 Sedan and have taken pics to show a detailed depiction of what to expect. I'll do a little write up tomorrow. I'm crashin' soon.
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