71 dart sway bar

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97reddodge

97reddodge

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i have an 71 dart and im doin a disc brake swap off a 74 scamp neither car have sway bar mounts? what can i do to add a sway bar front and rear? i am also swapping the rear axles? thanks
 
73 and later had a sway bar routed through openings in the K frame. The earlier sway bar went around the front of the K. One Difference is the location of the end link tabs welded on the lower arms. Another difference is the earlier bars forward mounts were large, triangular, and hang a bit low. Curb bump stops would break the bolt ears off or worse. If you intend to keep the 71 K that doesn't have the openings I would suggest aftermarket sway bar(s). Hellwig, Addco, etc., wide range in price. Most of those have the end link tabs located on the lower shock attach bolt and smaller, more conventional type forward mounts.
 
In order of preference:

Add front sway bar:
  1. Swap LCA for some that have tabs. No difference in location between 71 & 74. Sway bar design changed in 1973, match bar to K-frame used.
  2. Fabricate tabs and weld to LCA to approximate factory items.
  3. Purchase aftermarket LCA that have tabs.
  4. Purchase aftermarket kit that has tabs that bolt to lower shock mount.
The body mounts for the bar are bolt-ins. If you can't find them, they are not hard to fabricate. Option 4 comes with a bar that is longer than stock, because the mounts are farther out on the control arm. I do not recommend this option because the tabs are flimsy and BBP brake calipers often hit the bar.

Add rear bar:
  1. Find a 76, A-38 Dart cop car and get the bar and hardware out of it. (A handful of SoCal PDs bought these cars. None known to be shipped to TN from Mopar.)
  2. Buy a kit and fabricate mounts to mount the bar on the body. I'm working on this one now. With dual exhausts and hopefully a transverse Watts link going in, things are really busy in the area. May have to go with option 3. Purpose behind this is to move bar off of axle to reduce unsprung weight.
  3. Buy a kit and mount bar on axle per instructions. I've done this a couple of times in the past. Works with slight penalty in ride harshness.
If you're going from no bars to F/R at the same time, I think you'll be pleased with the transformation of your ride. Good luck.
 
i didnt either so for these to work i will need links for the front and weld tabs on my lower control arms? and how does the rear mount?
 
Not to piggyback but since we're on the subject of sway bars and this is a simple question:

It sounds like the sway bar tabs are the same on all LCA's that have them. I have a 73 car, with 73-up LCA's but an earlier 70's k-frame and what I think is an early sway bar as well. So my question is which end links do I use? 73-up, or earlier?
 
danielb927 said:
It sounds like the sway bar tabs are the same on all LCA's that have them. I have a 73 car, with 73-up LCA's but an earlier 70's k-frame and what I think is an early sway bar as well. So my question is which end links do I use? 73-up, or earlier?
Click to expand...


Use the earlier links
 
Those are looking like Addco bars - I have the front one on my 72 (or one very similar) - there is a L bracket that attaches the end links to the lower shock absorber bolts. The mounts to the K member are a little wonky, but once you have them all properly adjusted, you can drop a spot weld on them to make them solid. The instructions were pitiful, but it was a pretty simple install. The rear install instructions are pretty vague too.

I used a BBP Disc brake setup off a 76 Aspen, with 74 Dart upper control arms. All my lower stuff and K Member stayed the same.

Here is the one I used for reference:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ACO-150/

I'll try to grab a picture of the front bar installed.

That one looks like the one that would go through the K member -

The hardware in the picture is the stuff for the rear bar.

Still not a bad price though......
 
Dig through the archives to find the pics of the different sway bar tab locations if you want. The pre 73 lower arm had the tab very close to the lower ball joint and used longer end link kits. 73 and later lower arms had the tab located almost centered and used a short end link kit. None of this really matters though when installing aftermarket bars. You will place a tab where ever the end of their bar lands.
 
so i can make my own tab right off the lower shock bolt and just through a weld on it and it should be fine?
 
Not exactly. If you buy an after market bar it will come with tabs to mount there because the bar ends land there. No need to make your own.
If you use either of the stock bars there ends wont land in line with the shock bolt. You can make tabs to use with the stock bars but you'll need to weld them in the correct position.
 
Another option for a rear sway bar is to get a set up from a M body. I am in the process of installing one on my Duster.
C
 
Presuming the "o really" was in response to my post, here is a link that was given to me awhile back:
http://www.cloudfactory.org/~josh/barracuda/rearswaytech.html

I have mine "roughed in" as of yesterday. The frame brackets did not attach in the location as detailed in the article. Fortunately I hadn't drilled any holes. Then I remembered that I shifted the rear axle back 1/2" to center the wheels better in the wheel wells. It looks like I will also have to fab up a different bracket to hold the brake hose to line connection. This is actually a good thing, though. I haven't considered yet how the exhaust system will navigate through here. The article doesn't address it, so it may not be a problem.
C
 
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