Re: Now I remember!

He'd probably be much nicer than the neighbour I have now....

Jim.. While your on...

What can you tell me about adjustable rear anti-roll bars? I see Steeda makes an adjustable add on kit. The explanation on their site states "works with stock anti sway",. I take it that it mounts to the stock bar...? I had never thought about a heavier rear bar.

Thanx again! jim

Sorry, not familiar with the product....... I'm an old school guy and, try as I might, I can't see any adjustability to the bar other than preloading one rear corner or another (that a job better left to springs, anyway). Sounds like you know how a sway bar works..... my own preferance would be to step up a size or so in the bar diameter... this will resist body roll, shouldn't detract from current spring rates but may (I use this term cautiously) introduce other probems requiring further modification - something your pants and your driving style will tell you. I'm not sure about the "works with your stock rear swaybar" part...... simplicity is one key to good design.....

Jim Warman snipped-for-privacy@telusplanet.net

Jim's neighbor? LMAO! I think he'd be a kick in the arse! Prolly a helluva lot of fun, though I admit I like sarcastic humor and could easily look him in the eye and tell him to go pound sand.. LOL

Kate

Didn't he play Gomer Pyle?

I was hoping I wasn't the only one who thought about Jim Neighbors.

What is funny is I just watched an old Gomer Pyle, USMC episode in which he did his singing routine. WOW, that man can wail.

Don Manning

A sway bar is an auxiliary spring, actually a kind of torsion bar, that in a corner uses the power of the spring on the unloaded (inside) wheel to increase the effective spring rate on the loaded wheel. A sway bar is nicer riding than just throwing on a higher weight spring because it doesn't have any rate-increasing effect until a wheel gets unloaded. Going straight down a smooth road, you don't even know it's there.

I have an adjustable "Stambar" brand sway bar on my '70 Cougar. The end-links mount to the lower control arm with the usual two-bushings and a nut setup, but the sway bar end has a clamp, rather than a fixed mounting point, and the clamp mounts to the end-link with a spherical rod end. You change the rate of the bar by sliding the bar backwards or forwards in this clamp. The closer the clamp is to the first bend in the bar, the less the leverage and therefore the greater the spring rate.

I'm guessing this is the same principle as this Steeda part works on, that you increase or decrease the distance between the end link and the first bend in the OE bar. Or at your option you could replace the OE bar with a thicker one. I can't imagine how you could piggyback an entire second sway bar onto the OE one, or why you would want to. Unsprung weight is the worst weight, so you'd never want to add to it for no good reason. I also would guess that this adjustability allows only an increase in rate from stock, no decrease possible, based on the assumption that the end-link's stock mounting point puts it as far away as possible from the first bend in the bar.

There now, isn't that another typical Usenet response? A guy who you'll never meet and who knows little or nothing about the subject chimes in and brainstorms and gives you a bunch of "advice" that is just as likely to steer you wrong as not. But he's polite! Personally I'd prefer correct advice delivered with harshness and condescension, but that's probably just me.

Anyway, good luck!