So I found a set of boxed control arms and an F41 rear sway bar for $50. My question is: Does a rear sway bar make much of a difference, or would I be better off getting a front sway bar?
So I found a set of boxed control arms and an F41 rear sway bar for $50. My question is: Does a rear sway bar make much of a difference, or would I be better off getting a front sway bar?
Both is best. But that's a screaming deal on the rear.
Just don't install before upgrading the front bar.
When I was young I was always told to upgrade the front before the rear if you couldn't afford to do both at once. The thinking is that the car will have more predictable and manageable understeer as opposed to insta death oversteer.
Or would I just be better off getting the front springs from an IROC?
As with anything, the secret is the correct bar. There is a good chance that it won't be matched to the rest of the chassis, but its a bargain.
Going too stiff with the rear bar can cause some excessive oversteer, but just look for a complementary front setup to match it.
What about IROC-Z front springs, specifically NAPA Canada part 2773021?
I picked up some 11" 600lb front springs from a circle track shop for about $10 ea. I didn't have to worry about compressing them to install. The old springs were broken and had to be cut out.
99% of cars on the road have an undersized rear bar from the factory to keep the handling very understeer heavy, a bigger rear bar will balance this out. A bigger rear bar will also help traction on a open diff stick axle car. I'm not sure how big a F41 bar is compared to the stock bar, but I doubt it's a huge enough jump to make things act funny.
Kenny_McCormic wrote: 99% of cars on the road have an undersized rear bar from the factory to keep the handling very understeer heavy, a bigger rear bar will balance this out. A bigger rear bar will also help traction on a open diff stick axle car.
Thank you. This is the type of advice that I'm looking for. I will try to grab that bar.
There was a handling pkg for the G body that had a rear bar and larger front bar. I got mine from a Malibu cop car. That stuff shouldn't be too hard to find. Try looking at some of the local stock car track sites. Most of them have for sale sections. You want parts for a Metric chassis.
I have an 81 2 door Malibu with the stock suspension, 14" Rallye wheels, BFG Radial TA's, and the stock 6 cyl/auto driveline. I added the factory rear bar with no other changes and felt the car handled much better. Reduced the body roll and heavy understeer.
Kenny_McCormic wrote: A bigger rear bar will also help traction on a open diff stick axle car.
I'm not sure I agree with this. My experience has been that the increased roll stiffness transfers more weight to the outside wheel/off the inside wheel, which makes it much easier to do the one-wheel peel. If you're not trying to accelerate though, it does make a nice difference. Posi first, then rear bar, unless you've got an excess of traction as it is.
I'm more concerned with reducing understeer than anything else.
Those cars need bars. You'll probably want a front one as well, but for sure you'll want a rear bar and this one is cheap. Do it and try it and let us know.
In reply to gearheadE30:
I believe the theory is it will help prevent the car from twisting so much around the rear axle, keeping the weight distribution more even. Probably negligible at best until you get into big power though.
Zomby Woof wrote: There was a handling pkg for the G body that had a rear bar and larger front bar. I got mine from a Malibu cop car. That stuff shouldn't be too hard to find. Try looking at some of the local stock car track sites. Most of them have for sale sections. You want parts for a Metric chassis.
look for someone parting out an 84-88 Monte SS, that will be the most common place to find the good factory suspension parts. bigger sway bars, stiffer springs, tighter ratio steering box, chassis braces, and even a few extra body mounts if you are feeling really ambitious.. they also used the same stuff in the turbocharged Regals (T Type, GN) and Olds Cutlass 442 and Hurst Olds but the odds of finding any of those being parted out on CL or in a junkyard are pretty much nil.
Alrighty. I'll ask my parents, and maybe next weekend I'll have a sway bar (and boxed control arms)!
Even some of the Grand prix's had the better sway bars. My 86 LJ did.
The F41 is stiffer than OEM, but not nearly as stiff as an ADDCO bar. Should I pick it up?
In reply to G_Body_Man:
I definitely would. Does the car have are rear bar on it now?
A very thin rear bar, yes. It's even smaller than the one on my Grandad's old Tercel.
gearheadE30 wrote:Kenny_McCormic wrote: A bigger rear bar will also help traction on a open diff stick axle car.I'm not sure I agree with this. My experience has been that the increased roll stiffness transfers more weight to the outside wheel/off the inside wheel, which makes it much easier to do the one-wheel peel.
What's the final drive?
The taller the final drive, the more torque there is on the driveshaft vs. the amount of thrust generated by the tires. When you have a live axle, driveshaft torque factors into the way the tires are loaded just as much as the axle torque generated anti's are also factored in.
More succinctly, the taller the final drive, the harder it wants to lift the right tire off the ground and the more you want to have a rear bar.
This is 100% why I have really short gearing in the RX-7. It's not there for acceleration, it's for handling. By making most of the gear reduction happen in the rearend, the driveshaft torque is minimized for a given amount of acceleration. This makes the handling much more consistent, although the car does still turn left a heck of a lot more easily than it turns right.
In reply to Knurled:
It's got 2.56 rear gears. I probably want a thicker sway bar.
3.42s would be a much better purchase 
No, really. You'll love 'em.
Now, NUTS would be 3.73s, with a 700-R4 trans and its super short first/second gears, in a 3000lb A-body, with a big block. Almost too short of a gearing if such a thing is possible. But, hell, with the overdrive it drove just fine, and back inna old days people drove big blocks with 4.10s with no overdrive and gas was more expensive when adjusted for inflation...
In reply to Knurled:
Yes, but it's a PITA to install gears. How much would an install run me?
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