Technical do i need a sway bar (46-48 Ford)

I've been looking for replacement perch bolts for my 47 Ford coupe and the only ones i can find have the domed tops. Can I run without a sway bar in the front, or should I look for OEM perch bolts?

 

I think a lot depends on your rear suspension. If the car has been converted to parallel leaf rear you probably could get by without a front sway bar. Transverse leaf in rear would for sure benefit from a front sway bar.

 

The Ford Motor Co thought those cars needed sway bars. That's why they installed sway bars

 

I'm going to be running parallel in the rear.

 

...................I wouldn't worry too much about a front sway bar then. My '40 has parallel leaves from a tri-five Chevy and stock front axle with no sway bar. It's been that way since the 1960's.

 

My avatar runs parallel leaf rear and I have sway bars on both ends. When I change from the stock front one to one of out 1inch units, it was quite an improvement.

 

1inch units??

 

Sway bars are for cornering an help some for side wind gust,yes you can drive with out any,its just about ride comfort at norace speeds.

 

Think about how they work. Sway bars (anti-roll bars) allow both sides of the front or rear suspension manage how the car will ride and how it will behave in corners. In the pro street days there were many cars that eliminated the front bar and had little more than coilovers and a track locator for the rear. You could always tell who'd done that as they pulled into a hangout or cruise night. Even at low parking speeds they would list over like an old boat in bad waters. Couldn't imagine doing any sort of spirited expressway entry without it. FWIW I'm adding one to my 39, even if I have to fab custom locators on the axle. I plan to use a panhard in the rear, but I may do a sway bar instead. Just my 3 cents...

 

yes PUT one on the front, you won't regret it...

 

I like questions like this. Someone knows better and wants someone else to say it's OK to go with the worst choice possible Just because someone on HAMB agreed with the worst choice for an application is no reason to do dumb stuff. Thimk for yourself. I have a 1948 Ford coupe. Am I going to put a sway bar on it? Damn right I am. Why? Because when Ford did their testing they found because of the extra weight of these cars, they rolled around at higher speeds and were dangerous. My choice is going to be an aftermarket Panhard bar AND swaybar. Why? Because I have driven these wonderful old tanks since I was fifteen years old back in the fifties..They can get you in trouble in the curves, especially when it switches back and the car's weight is still in the same position as it was in the last curve. I suspect it would be no better with a Three Springer set up. I drive harder than most, but I figured if you want someone to tell you to use a fresh one --- I am. And, maybe you should widen the search for nuts and replace them. No one I know would leave a necessary part off just because of some stinking nuts.

 

.....................Wrong.

 

Yes, we make 1inch replacements for the fronts of early fords and .750 for various configuration rears.

 

I think you are thinking pan hard bar not sway bar. The sway bar is too wiggly to locate your axle.

A lot depends on the manner in which your radius rods are located. If they are still triangulated a pan hard is not necessary in most cases. If they are split and run parallel to your axle and you don't have enough preload on the spring (think spring perch location here) you may need a pan hard to keep your axle in line.

 

You need a front bar. Period.

Ideally, front and rear.

 

You need a vocabulary check from the*******. This discussion is rendered into gibberish as a suspension discussion by word choices that have been ground into rodders' heads by baaad writers in popular magazines.
Sway is a sideways/horizontal motion of the body over the wheels. Go to the back fender of an old Chevelle or Impala and push sideways. Sway.
Roll is what the comic book level magazines call probably any motion they do not understand. Roll is the body tilting over the wheels under cornering loads. In that old Impala, roll is why the door handles drag on the ground when you turn and why you feel like if you let go of the steering wheel in a left turn you would fall right out the right window.
Yes, they tend to happen together, but they are entirely different motions and are controlled by different mechanisms.* Your "sway bar" controls only roll.
Your '47 is s nice exemplar here...it has an anti-roll bar in front (The U-shaped thing across the axle, just like on most modern cars) and an anti-sway bar on both ends, called by many "Panhard Bar," used to control actual sway. It has those specifically because '42-48 Fords eliminated the anti-sway function of the springs by using very long shackles. This makes the suspension much like a coil spring setup...springs only support weight.
This sounds pedantic, but howinhell can you discuss suspension when one system is continually mislabeled and the other no longer even has a name? Sway and roll cannot be understood if they are muddled together

*most of the time...obviously there have been other mechanisms over the last 150 years. '40 Fords experimented with a dual purpose front bar!

 

I don't know how you drive...bit if it were "my" car...yes, it would have anti-sway bars at both ends.

Mike

 

any possibility of posting a picture (or link) of front & rear bars in the vehicle?
my search for same got me parts pictures and to this thread, but i'm having difficulty understanding the mounting methods. [scale modeling reference]

thanks

 

should this be "perpendicular" ? i'm confused