I am having a hard time getting a good answer so I figured I would post the question here... My father has a 1964 Impala SS convertible, goldwood yellow, that we have owned for almost 30 years. Over the past few years, I have done a few 'driveability' upgrades which include replacing the slave cylinder power steering with a 605 Saginaw box and adding power brakes with discs up front. The car has been driven to the GG show in Columbus at least 6 times so all of these improvements have made the 8 hour trip from PA a much better ride... Anyway, a good friend of mine just gave me a complete set of aftermarket sway bars which I believe were sold by CPP (Classic Performance Products). The new front bar is 1" in diameter which should make a big difference over the factory paper clip sized bar. The problem is that when I installed the new front bar, it is extremely close to the pitman arm. You can just about see daylight between the bar and the arm when the box is turned full right. So obviously I'm concerned this a a problem. I did a quick Google seach, and I found a post that a tech from CPP replied to and said you can shim the bar away from the frame. This doesn't really help since it pushes the bar closer to the pitman arm. So I called CPP and now they offer their own 500 series box which is $400+. They claim this will solve the clearance problem. I also found that Hotchkis makes a front bar with a large 'jog' in it that will clear the 605 box ($250) Has anyone else ran into this problem and came up with a better solution??? Thanks, Tom
I spend some time om ChevyTalk.com and the 409 forum since I have 4 of these models. The consensus has been, that the new 500 box is far, far better than the old 605. It should be an even better investment than the sway bars, if it will fit your budget. You will loose the "twitchiness" that the 605 box gives from too much line pressure.
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