Early A Body Sway Bars

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Walt Jackson said:
The best sway bars, front and rear, by far are made by Firm Feel:

http://www.firmfeel.com/swaybars_a.htm

--Walt Jackson
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Anyone here have experience with a Firm Feel rear sway bar? The brackets that mount to the fram rails are bolted down with sheet metal bolts. Does this hold up overtime? Does this give a solid mount? I would think a lot better design would be to put a sleeve through the framerail and run a bolt to squeeze the bracket from both sides...like how Hellwig mounts their link bolt.

Anyhoe, I guess if it doesn't feel good I'll weld the bracket to the frame - I'll probably get to this anyhow. Then I believe the Firm Feel would be the superior design.
 
Ive found a junkyard one off of 99-06 chevy 2500 4x4 and its HUGE but hollow....something like 1-3/8 to 1-1/2. Its the right width and 'depth' but I have not found a way to mount it.....Im planning on exporer bar in the rear.....not sure what car yet tho.
 
stop the beast said:
Anyone here have experience with a Firm Feel rear sway bar? The brackets that mount to the fram rails are bolted down with sheet metal bolts. Does this hold up overtime? Does this give a solid mount? I would think a lot better design would be to put a sleeve through the framerail and run a bolt to squeeze the bracket from both sides...like how Hellwig mounts their link bolt.

Anyhoe, I guess if it doesn't feel good I'll weld the bracket to the frame - I'll probably get to this anyhow. Then I believe the Firm Feel would be the superior design.
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The factory Mopar rear sway bars are held in with self-tapping cap screws so I see no problem as long as your frame rail is sound. A welded in sleeve with through bolts would be nice too but you'd have to drill a large hole all the way through and then weld in the sleeve flush with the frame rail so the bracket will straddle the rail without deforming. Sounds like more trouble than it's worth. My understanding is that too big a rear sway bar can cause handling problems......Anyone have that happen to them?
 
well, in a neutral state, a large rear bar and camber in the front bites HARD and allows the *** to slide around and 'rotate' (this is the way my neon is setup) but being that you want to keep the rears planted for end turn throttle you want to keep it a level as possable so a moderate rear with a large front would probly be best as well as a decent limited slip/locker so you dont roast that inside tire.
 
If you want to tune the roll stiffness of your rear sway bar, our rear bar has 3 adjustment points. Also it is made from heat treated 4140 chrome moly steel. Here's a view installed on a 68 Barracuda

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I don't have any pics of an early A body with the stock tabs. A factory installed sway bar is quite rare on these vehicles and none of our test fit vehicles had it. We had a set of 67-72 control arms with tabs at the shop and we mocked up the bar on our k-frame to match that spacing as well as the shock bolt mount.
 
Dave@Hellwig said:
I don't have any pics of an early A body with the stock tabs. A factory installed sway bar is quite rare on these vehicles and none of our test fit vehicles had it. We had a set of 67-72 control arms with tabs at the shop and we mocked up the bar on our k-frame to match that spacing as well as the shock bolt mount.
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So are you saying that you use the bolt on shock tab OR 67-72 LCA with OEM tabs; NOT the orig. 63-66 LCA with factory tabs???

First picture is of a factory 65 A body, with factory tabs (65 formula S) are located on the outer edge of the LCA. Picture 2 is the 69 340 Swinger factory tabs, looking angled differently. 3rd pict is the 65 after rebuild and cleanup.
Mike
 

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We didn't have a set of the rare early a-body LCA's with the tabs. THe later ones will swap in. The ends of the bar are angled slightly to match with the shock mounted tab and the bar has enough clearance to be rotated up to match with the stock tabs. Looking at the pics of your installation of the 65 sway bar, our bar should work with that style as well.
 
Dave do you have the front part# for the early A ?
 
So many brackets and adapters. Why not just weld the "rare" sway bar mount onto your LCA? Ill make a pattern of a "rare" 65 "S" bracket and post here. Should not be hard to cut, bend and weld a piece of xx guage sheet metal. Rear bars have me looking, my "S" didnt come with one but I did see a 2bbl 65 273 Valiant at a show with a "factory" one under it. Dont know what thats about. The owner made a big deal about it too, ie, "you ever seen one of these???" I heard Camaro rear sway bars work if you "adapt" them.
 
pishta said:
So many brackets and adapters. Why not just weld the "rare" sway bar mount onto your LCA? Ill make a pattern of a "rare" 65 "S" bracket and post here. Should not be hard to cut, bend and weld a piece of xx guage sheet metal. Rear bars have me looking, my "S" didnt come with one but I did see a 2bbl 65 273 Valiant at a show with a "factory" one under it. Dont know what thats about. The owner made a big deal about it too, ie, "you ever seen one of these???" I heard Camaro rear sway bars work if you "adapt" them.
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Yeah, I'll be welding mounts onto my front LCAs.
 
Swing 69 those are nice early a body picts. I believe PST makes those bars for front and back I used them on my 66 cuda when rebuilding its suspension.
 
The only A-body that came with a factory rear sway bar is the '76 Police car.
 
65cudalover said:
cudamark,

just cuz it didnt come with, dont believe it cannot be added or done.....Just takes motivation and effort.
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I totally agree....it's just that pishta said he saw a '65 with a "factory" rear sway bar in it and I'm just saying it wasn't available from the factory that year so it must have been added.
 
Dave@Hellwig said:
P/N is 55914. you can order them through Summit Racing for $240.99.
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Dave, just an FYI, I have one of your early A rear bars, and because my car has the springs relocated the bar did not fit properly. I had a friend who owns a spring shop straighten the two side arms so that they now bolt to the inside of the dogbones instead of the outside. (see pic ) It now fits like a charm ( even on my 9" Ford rear ). If you made this change to your stock bar, it would fit both stock and narrowed rears, just a thought....
 

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cudamark said:
I totally agree....it's just that pishta said he saw a '65 with a "factory" rear sway bar in it and I'm just saying it wasn't available from the factory that year so it must have been added.
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Yeah, I thought that 'ol geezer was blowing smoke..and for the record, I saw a 65 that had a rear sway bar and was told it was factory. I dont want to admit my ignorance on sway bar offerings, but I think I just did....
 
Tincup - Thanks for the suggestion. Currently we hot form these bars on a die so its hard for us to make a change but we could do this on our cnc bender.
 
dart -66 You could buy the frame mounts separately but I can't guarantee they will work with another brand of sway bar. We have had people buy our brackets for the 67-72 Mopar A-body to use with our competitor's bars but they have not worked due to their bar being dimensionally different. An inch is a mile on sway bar fitment and you may find that the other brand sway bar will not line up right.
 
Yep Dave, I know that.
I´ve old style Addco sway (ends like early C-body) and mounts to K-member are awful... It would be a little easier to start with those.
How much would those brackets + hardware + shipping be?
 
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