76 Camaro Sway Bar Q

Finally getting my dirt track Camaro ready and realized there's no front sway bar on it (used race car, missing some parts...) - I'm going to yank the one from my poor 80 project car - it should bolt up and I got new end links... but I'm curious how much softer the Camaro bar would have been stock wise vs an 80 Trans Am? (Not like it matters, just curious...)

I don't think it was a Z28 either... just a plain jane camaro.

Ray

76 Camaro Dirt Pure Stock 80 Trans Am Project Car 01 Trans Am Ram Air w/Nitrous (12.18@111)
Reply to
ray
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Different diameters. The WS6 is one BEEFY bar :).

You can get those bars just about anywhere. I want to even say Moog or most of the stock replacement suspension companies have them in their product lines :).

Joe--ASE Certified Parts Specialist & 10th Ann.Club Tech Director '80 Carousel Red Turbo T/A, 26k orig. '79 "Y89" 400/4 speed 10th Ann. T/A, 57k orig '84 Olds 88 Royale Bgm 2 dr, 307 "Rocket" (lol), 141k and still going.... '80 T/A project car...

Reply to
Bigjfig

Instead of robbing your project car, you need to viset a Salvage yard. Most good yards give a racers discount. Even at that, I never charged more then $25 for a front sway bar.

As for the differance in the bars, they could be vast. From 70 to 81 they made a good number of different size, and spring rate bars. Usually the larger the bar the higher the rate. A 76 V8 base model probably would have had a small, softer rate bar. Where as a WS6 T/A would have a large high rate bar.

Charles

Reply to
Charles Bendig

Is ok, the project car is mostly in boxes... the engine doesn't run... and the interior is empty... so it won't mind. Then I'll get it a better one... ;)

Reply to
ray

Here's something I saved from a while back, a guy put together a list of swaybar sizes for the Firebirds from 70 to 81. You can measure your swaybar and compare it to the list below to get an idea of how stiff it will be. I've been doing a run of multileaf to monoleaf swaps in lately and the Camaros seem to have softer multileaf springs than the T/As. I don't know if the sway bars are different since they were removed from all the Camaros I've messed with.

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The largest factory rear bar was 7/8" used on the '70-'72 T/A & Y96/Y99 equipped Formulas.

Front Bars: ALL '70-'81 T/As & Y96/Y99 equipped Formulas came with 1-1/4" (1.25) front sway bars. Std. Formulas had 1-1/8" (1.125) bars. Std. Birds had 15/16" (.938) till 1975, then it increased to 1"

Rear Bar:

1970-72 T/A & Y96/Y99 Birds = 7/8" (.875) 1973-77 T/A & Y96/Y99 Birds = 13/16" (.813) 1978-81 T/A & Y96/Y99 Birds = 5/8" (.625) 1978-81 WS6/WS7 equipped = 3/4" (.750)

Torque resistance of anti-sway bars changes with the square of the cross-sectional area. Therefore, a small increase in diameter provides a major increase in sway-bar effectiveness.

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Ray, that 01 is smokin! You'd give me a run for the money in my T/A running N/A 12.26@113.20. I should be getting a quote on a used cheater system in a couple of weeks, need a bit of squeeze to keep up with everyone else running naaaws.

Dave

Reply to
poncho462

Thanks for the listing! I'll be digging the bar out and measuring it. :) The TA runs 13.11 with a lid and BF Drag Radials. I'm hooked on spray... 1 full second at the push of a button. :)

Reply to
ray

These days it seems like naaaws is like American Express - don't leave home without it. (Yes, I stole that from a friend of mine who runs an 8 second 76 T/A on radials) ;^)

Dave

Reply to
poncho462

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