addco 751 sway bar for 1963 Dart

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Mineallmine

Mineallmine

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I am considering ordering this bar for my 63 Dart. Question I have is do the aftermarket bars require you to drill the K frame to mount the brackets or are there existing holes that they utilize? I haven't crawled under my car to look yet, but don't remember seeing any extra holes when I cleaned and repainted it.

Do they make a huge difference on handling? I took my car around the block for the first time yesterday and noticed it does seem to have body roll going around corners more than I'm used to. All the suspension is new, so I know it's not worn parts and from what I've read these cars do tend to like to "dip" when going around corners.
 
When you refreshed your suspension did you add new, larger torsion bars?

I have Addco bars, I bought them when they were the only option for our cars. If I had to do it again today I'd look to Firm Feel, Hotchkis, etc. Not sure if these have anything fro early A bodies. The Addco mounting is cheesy at best.
 
Original torsion bars. Looked up the others and only other I can find for the early A is Hellwig. They are double the price. I can fabricate heavier mounts, that's easy. If that's the main improvement, I can't justify the extra cost.

Car only has 65,000 original miles. The bushings up front didn't look bad, just replaced them all while I had it all apart. Went back completely stock for the entire front end, just all new. Even replaced the rear leaf bushings and mount U bolts while it was apart as well.
 
The addco bars are the bottom of the line. flimsy mounting hardware. You can make it work ok, but you would be better off with a better brand.
 
The 63 does not have any mounting holes in the K Frame. 65 was the first year the sway bar was offered and thus had the mounting holes in the K. Whatever sway bar you decide to use will require mounting the bar to the K and using either LCAs with the mounting tabs or the “cheesey” brackets that mount to the shock bolt.

I’m using the 1 & 1/2 inch Helwig hollow sway bar on my 65 Dart wagon ;still under construction. I can provide pictures/dimensions of the stock mounting holes on the 65 K if needed.

Even the stock 65/66 A Body sway bar will reduce body roll and is a good upgrade over nothing at all
 
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The Addco bars themselves are pretty good. The hardware and bushings are not great. They work but improvement can be made.
 
Whatever this is worth, when I still had the original stock 40+ year old suspension and 14" tires on my 73 Duster and added a Hellwig front bar, the reduction in body-roll was very noticeable and the car felt much more stable cornering. I've since done a complete suspension rebuild with several upgrades but I definitely feel the front sway-bar was a worthwhile addition even with otherwise stock suspension.
 
the addco bars are good, it's just the hardware that sucks. that fixed easily enough, though.

the helwig bar is very nice and installs easily. not much fuss.

i ran a quickor bar in the front of my darts (64 & 65) and it was great, although my LCA's were later 73's so all of the mounting i fabbed up. but the bar fitment was spot on.

the firm feel bar is nice too and the hardware is good.

no matter what you choose you'll more than likely have to drill mounting holes.

good luck!
 
junkyardhero said:
i ran a quickor bar in the front of my darts (64 & 65) and it was great, although my LCA's were later 73's so all of the mounting i fabbed up. but the bar fitment was spot on.
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I need to do something like this for my 64 Valiant that will get 74 front disc brakes. Can you post a photo of how you fabbed up the sway bar mounts?
 
halfafish said:
I need to do something like this for my 64 Valiant that will get 74 front disc brakes. Can you post a photo of how you fabbed up the sway bar mounts?
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it was 20 or so years ago, so i can't promise anything but i'll have a look around and see if can find some pics.

the epic saga goes: i was running an addco bar that was total dog ****-- it's not addco's fault, the bar wasn't for that application-- but that's what i had because stock bars were and still are unobtainium and any of the good bars would have seriously cut into my beer budget. the addco unit bound up everywhere, weighed a bajillion pounds, and mounted crappy.

anyway, i was bombing down an alley staring at my copilots thighs when i caught a dip with an increasing exit angle of which, at the speed i was traveling, produced an instantaneous logistical problem within the suspension design.

the result of this tore the bar clean from its mount and immediately zeroed out my chances of getting laid. at least that night.

i'd run into mikey B from up in the pac NW at a carshow and we'd talked about early A bars and how he was going to make some, so somehow i tracked him down and got a bar in short order. the fab was real basic with some box tube and flat iron, i used energy suspension poly bushings and end links.
 
I have an Addco bar on my '66 Dart. Makes a big difference but I do not like the mounts at all. I often want to redo the mounting so they have more ground clearance and rigidity, but other things have taken precedence.
 
66fyssh said:
Anyone try the QA1 sway bar?

At some point I'll be adding a sway bar to my 66 barracuda.

1966 PLYMOUTH BARRACUDA QA1 52861 QA1 Sway Bars | Summit Racing
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if you look at the specs it notes that it fits the QA1 K only. it also notes fitments of: 63~68, 68~69, 70~74, 69~76 and so on. which, um... uh... okay?

beyond the obvious fact that would be three entirely different types of swaybars and mounting styles, they also don't make a K for the early narrow bodies. so there's that.

i mean, not that it couldn't be made to fit something else. but you'd need to know the end to end length and critical dimensions-- mainly the length and angle of the arms. and either way you'd likely be fabbing up mounting brackets for the bushings, which no big deal and you'd for sure be making LCA tabs, which again, isn't the end of the world.

also of note, but not critical, a hollow 1.25 bar isn't nearly the same rate as a solid. but again, that may or may not be of concern to you or have any bearing on the decision.

all of this is to say is that if you're looking for a bolt in, look else where. and expect to shell out in the $400 range.
 
I agree with Mike that the mounting hardware is junk. The bars themselves are fine. I have the Addco 751 under the front of Vixen. I basically relocated it up as high as possible and over the valance panel to k frame support. I used some Universal Energy suspension mounts that are much more robust. Even with the added cost, I'm still well below the other bars available.
 
Mineallmine said:
I am considering ordering this bar for my 63 Dart. Question I have is do the aftermarket bars require you to drill the K frame to mount the brackets or are there existing holes that they utilize? I haven't crawled under my car to look yet, but don't remember seeing any extra holes when I cleaned and repainted it.

Do they make a huge difference on handling? I took my car around the block for the first time yesterday and noticed it does seem to have body roll going around corners more than I'm used to. All the suspension is new, so I know it's not worn parts and from what I've read these cars do tend to like to "dip" when going around corners.
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Since you're not going to be stock regardless of which setup you use, ideally, I'd use stiffer torsion bars (at least a 1" diameter) and the Helwig sway bar. Any sway bar would be an improvement however. Just depends on how nice you want to make it with whatever budget you have.
 
I know this is old post but anyone have a measurement from center of eyelet to center of eyelet on the sway bar. I have a helwig bar part 55914. I’m installing on my 64 cuda and seems to be too wide. My measurement is 44”. Nothing like the pic in their directions. Pic has the endlinks vertical, mine follow the angle of the shocks. TIA.
 
I run the hellwig sway bar on my 64 dart they give you a Bracket that bolts on to the botttom bolt on your front shocks then you drill some holes on your k frame pretty straight forward. My car had a big difference in handling when I added it, I take corners like the rice rockets on my way to work! Another thing that’s over looked if having a engine torque strap on your engine on my slant six it helped a bunch too.
 
Slantsix64 said:
I run the hellwig sway bar on my 64 dart they give you a Bracket that bolts on to the botttom bolt on your front shocks then you drill some holes on your k frame pretty straight forward. My car had a big difference in handling when I added it, I take corners like the rice rockets on my way to work! Another thing that’s over looked if having an engine torque strap on your engine on my slant six it helped a bunch too.
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Do you have any pics of the sway bar installed?
 
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