Let's discuss universal, splined sway bars

For reasons of weight reduction and tuning possibilities, I want to convert from a U-shaped, make-specific bar to a splined circle track-style bar. I have questions:

All of the circle track stuff uses a very long arm, usually 14 inches or so, but my car only has room for an 8-inch arm. Is there any reason why I can't trim a longer splined arm to my desired length?

Aluminum or steel arms?

How wide a spline should I get?

I notice the places selling these bars have bearing mounts. Any reason I can't use a regular rubber or urethane bushing?

Vehicle weight will be around 3400 pounds in case that affects any of the above answers.

You can use a shorter arm. You will need to use a thinner bar as you won't have as much leverage. Ours just sat in a plastic bushing instead of bearings but it mounted the same way.

Wally beat me to it.

I'd use an Oilite bushing - it is radially stiffer than a rolling-element bearing.

I've got those style of bars on a '73 Corolla. The front one appears to have full length arms and to do it (not by me)the bar is mounted against the firewall and passes right above the bell housing. I'd never seen that done before.
The rear bar is mounted to the cage inside the trunk and uses some long links to connect to the axle under the car.

http://schroedersteering.com/sway-bar-rate-charts-graphs/ everything you need to know.