Can/should lower control arms be modified to accept sway bar?

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Cameron1038

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hello,

my lower control arms dont have the tab necessary to attach the sway bar.. Can or should I weld tabs on so they can??

Also, unrelated suspension question.. Are there any performance disadvantages to using leaf spring shackles?

Thanks!
Cameron
 
Welding the clips on for the factory sway bar isn't a big deal. Reproductions of both types have been offered . I don't recall where.
Aftermarket bars use clips added at the shock bolt. Lots of users weld those also.
 
Aftermarket bars use clips added at the shock bolt. Lots of users weld those also.

That is my plan exactly. Bolt it in place, drive to the shop and have a buddy run a bead where the bracket touches the control arm!!
 
Welding the clips on for the factory sway bar isn't a big deal. Reproductions of both types have been offered . I don't recall where.
Aftermarket bars use clips added at the shock bolt. Lots of users weld those also.

Hotchkiss offers reproduction tabs for the 73-76 A Body, 70-72 B Body, & 70-74 E Body cars, which are all the same.
They also have reproduction tabs for the 66-69 B Body cars.
They do not have anything for the 65-72 A Body tabs.
 
Hmmm.. i pulled the sway bar from a 73 up dart. my swinger is a 73, but was /6 all drum brake car. i will check out their website, those tabs sound like they might be a win.

Thanks :)

Cameron
 
Cameron, one thing to check before you buy anything is to make sure that the sway bar you have is the correct item for your car. The earlier swaybars had their tabs welded to the bottom of the control arm and the sway bar mounted under the front of the K-frame. In 73 the sway bar tab was flipped and relocated to the top of the control arm and the sway bar was passed through the center area of the K-frame. If your K-frame has a hole through the center webbing area it is designed for the later style sway bar, and the car you took yours from should have been the same. If you removed it yourself you should remember that you had to pass the sway bar through the hole. The later sway bars also had flat brackets that mounted to the side webs of the K-frame to mount the bushings, where the early style had the brackets mounted to the front lip of the K-frame, just under the strut bar mounts. If you would like to see a couple pictures of an early and a late model setup, just post that, or if you have a picture of your items, include that in this thread for us to look at. Geof
 
Side note: is it helpful to run LCA bracing plates? How much do the LCA really "flex" without them?
 
Cosgig - thanks for the heads up, I had no idea. I would have welded the tab to the bottom of the LCAs, and if I understand you correctly, they should be welded to the top. As this is a project I am coming back to after about 5 years, my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I am nearly positive that I got the sway bar and the crossmember out of the same car. The sway bar does mount to the side webbing of the crossmember with the flat brackets. Thanks!

I am also interested to know whether the LCAs need any sort of bracing.
 
I'll chime in on the braces also. I recently rebuilt my front end and haven't got it back on the road yet. I plan on running the Hotchkis bar on the front and didn't want to take any chances with my 43 year old lower control arms. They were like $20 from Mancini and my buddy welded them for free. Figured it was just good insurance. My buddy who welded said they used to dirt track an old Dart and "they never needed any bracing" but I thought what the hell could it hurt?

I'm sure someone will chime in with some real world experience with them, not just my jack stand racing thoughts!!
 
There are reinforcement plates available that weld on the bottom of the arms. 3 pieces of 1/8 X 1 will serve just as well.
 
Also, unrelated suspension question.. Are there any performance disadvantages to using leaf spring shackles?

Thanks!
Cameron

Well, If you don't use them & just mount your springs solid to the frame your rear springs will bind up. So NOT using them would be a disadvantage. But that's probably not what you meant.

If you're asking about using longer ones to raise the rear of the car, yes there are disadvantages. They raise the car's center of gravity, they put undue stress on the springs, they have an adverse effect on the handling of the car.....etc. My advice, don't do it. But maybe that's just me. :tongue1:
 
Pic 1: 73-76 LCA
Pic 2: 65-72 LCA
Pic 3: My own home-made LCA stiffening plates with integral sway bar tab. No apparent flex in the tab when running a 1.25" front bar and 1.14" torsion bars........ The hole had not been drilled yet as we wanted to install them in the car and line everything up before drilling.
 

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Also note: There is no hole in the plates for the LCA bumper. We left that out since this car sits too low to run the bumper anyway.
 
Those look good, Mr. Lusk. I take for granted since you used the lower attaching point that you are using those on a 65 - 72 model?
 
OK Cam, heres a couple pictures of an early and late sway bar setup. The rusty pieces are the later style removed from a 1973 Dart Sport 340 car and the painted items are from a 1967 Barracuda. The last picture is the pass through hole in the K-frame from the DS. Hope this helps, Geof
 

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Yes, we are using the early style sway bar (but it BIG at 1.25") mounted to a modified 73-76 K-member (Direct Connection copy) in a 67 Barracuda fastback.
 
Are there any performance disadvantages to using leaf spring shackles?

if you are talking about the longer ones that lift the back of your car the answer isyes!!! to many to count, they ruin your cars handling, dont use them! new springs are worth every penny
 
lol, yes 64 cuda, I did mean the longer shackles. Thanks for the input!

Thanks again cosgig, the 73 and later parts you have pictured are the parts I have. I will get a set of those tabs and weld them to the top of the LCAs.

As far as bracing the LCAs it sounds like that would be getting a bit ahead of myself as I am still running the standard torsion bars from a V8 car. Perhaps I will brace them when I have the cash to upgrade the torsion bars.
 
Cameron, if money is an issue you can make your sway bar tabs for almost free with a scrap piece of 2x3 square tubing. Cut it at an angle and trim it to clear the flanges on the LCA. Kinda hard to describe but I can send you pics of mine if you like.

As redfish mentioned you can also weld bracing to the bottom of the LCA for next to nothing.

Scott
 

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the hellwig bar uses a little different mount. you locate it on the arm, drill a hole through just one side of the control arm sneak a nut in there and bolt the tab on. i tried an addco bar on my dart and it uses the shock bolt to mount the tab but that doesnt really seem to line up that well.
 
Cameron, if money is an issue you can make your sway bar tabs for almost free with a scrap piece of 2x3 square tubing. Cut it at an angle and trim it to clear the flanges on the LCA. Kinda hard to describe but I can send you pics of mine if you like.

As redfish mentioned you can also weld bracing to the bottom of the LCA for next to nothing.

Scott

nice bracket, I may copy that for mine
 
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