It really reduced the body roll on my car out back, made it allot smoother in the turns... I definitely thought it was a worthwhile upgrade
My findings with the front sway bar: I pulled a 1-1/4" bar from our '65 Mustang that had been raced before we bought it, and after playing with bushings and sway bar bolts it fit really well. I'm glad I did it because of a few reasons: 1) The old sway bar mounts where the bar slides inside the rubber bushing had not been greased for probably 20 years, and was the source of a squeak while going over speedbumps. 2) The old sway bar was for the car when it had the inline-6, and the 302 weighs significantly more, worsening the handling even more. 3) It's cool that my front sway bar is the same size as a 1997 Explorer's. Results are hard to tell, as I hadn't driven the car much before I decided to begin my EFI swap, and the tires on the car cost very little when new when my brother owned the car,and now are over 10 years old. This means the car has massive understeer no matter what, BUT I did notice that it rolls almost not at all before the tires let go, whereas before the car would roll badly, especially with passengers in the car. I never tested to see how higher-speed stability was affected, because the tires are so old I didn't trust them at 60 mph and the way the old power steering feels at those speeds. I imagine that once I put decent tires on and get the new motor in that it will be a huge improvement. When I pulled the old sway bar I was very shocked at how wimpy it was (barely larger than 1/2"!) with how large the engine is. I feel a lot more secure (and badass) with the relatively giant sway bar that is on it now.
bigger sway bars on any old Ford, especially the unibody's, will give you flatter cornering and reduce suspension rise over bumps somewhat to keep things a bit more predictable. The rear bars can do wonders for running deep into corners as it helps reduce rear rise/front dive and keep that inside rear planted too. Not having one at all will make the car exteremly unpredictable under quick heavy turnins or evasive menuevars and you literally go to almost 3 wheel traction at times... and especially when combined with irregular road surfaces. I put rear swaybars on everything I own or beef up the factory stuff with a larger aftermarket piece. I won't leave home without em'. lol
I should consider doing the same on my car. I had a such an awesome improvement in handling after upgrading the sway bar and adding the rear sway bar. Maybe a larger front sway bar will help it even more. Thanks for the post.
My Brother has a Ford Granada sway bar in his 76 Stallion, almost exact bends. No problems what so ever and where a Granada is a bigger car, there is bigger sway bars available.
Some of them are bigger, they came in a range of different sizes. I believe that 31/32" is the largest. I have used these sway bars on both my 1968 Cougar and Mustang. Grab the hardware except the end links, buy new. 31/32" bushings are near impossible to find, I got selective and searched until I found a good used set of rubber bushings for my last project. You will only find the largest sway bar on the Ford Granada, Lincoln Versailles and Mercury Monarch did not get that 31/32 bar as far as I know.
I'm trying to remember exactly what i did but i think i had to move the mount rearwards about 3/4's of an inch and re-drill the mounting holes on the lower arms the same 3/4's because of possible interference with the struts....Pretty simple
Can't believe I am just seeing this thread now ... good stuff! From what I have been able to learn about sway bar over the years is that ... to over-simplfy ... while they do have a great effect on the end of the car they are placed, they really tend to fix problems at the other end of the car, due to cross-leverage through the entire car. This is because the car is up on springs at each corner. Kind of the same thing as one-wheel peel when you don't have a posi rear axle. Motor torque presses the passenger front wheel down harder, which in turn, will transmit across to the driver's rear and give it traction, making the passenger side rear "light". If the car is tail-happy and loose, like ours tend to be, a bigger front bar will help calm that down. If you get a car to where it starts plowing (going straight rather than turning), then more rear bar can help. This is just a thumbnail of a really complicated subject, and you definitely do not want to get caught up in "More's Law" ( "if a little more is good ..., a LOT MORE ought to be GREAT!!! ... WRONG). Paul's post earlier echoes what I have seen. Spring rates can be used to adjust this stuff too, and shocks are a good final tuning tool, and there are guys that really like to focus more on those areas. Almost two entirely different schools of thought. I will might try a hybrid approach ... looking into a bigger front bar myself and planning on the Econoline leaf swap, keeping the Comet main, and adding or subtracting lowers until the car likes it. My goal is good overall driveability and keeping it reasonably comfortable ... not overly stiff. There is a mention of a 1.25" bar being as big as the one on Explorer ... that would be my daily driver too. Huge front bar, and it needs it. Don't know that I would go that big on the Comet. I will tell you that I keep popping end link bushings in that front bar. It crushes them to death in short order. Common problem on Ex's ... ran through two stock sets, and one premium Moog blue poly set, too, in two years. I have a set of big Energy Suspension bushings and links being shipped as we speak. We'll see if I can tear those up!
Been looking this thread over and knew I had seen something about rear sway bars somewhere else, and this is from the very old reading I have found.....http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/memb...0352740575/1970-01_HR_Maverick_Hop_Up_1-3.pdf Talks about a one inch GT350 front bar and an Adco .50 inch rear bar, also mentions production Mach 1 rear bars fitting, page three, middle paragraph, under large HOT STUFF.
I finally had a chance to take the car out for a spin tonight, frickin huge difference!!! The whole combo, of the new leaf springs, cal tracs, and the sway bar make the car handle amazing! It's not like the old soggy a$$ed it had before. My house is at the top of a hill, and close to another side street, so I drove it into the corners, and it was way better.
I was going to put a '76 Granada swaybar on my Maverick today. Once I got them side by side I saw the Granada SW is 2" wider than a Maverick SW...I don't think the swaybar will be able to do its thing. I think it will be pushing sideways more than pushing down on the lower control arm Granada (on top) vs Maverick Swaybar (on bottom)
