gene284

Has anyone eliminated the plate on the front lower a-arms of the earlier C4s, and installed a sway bar in the hole in the side of the A-arms? This would make the system similar to the 1988-96 where the sway bar link attaches directly to the side of the a-arm.

I realize the sway bar would need to be shortened, but since I've narrowed the front suspension anyway, the bar already needs to be shortened.



You can just see the hole at the front of the a-arm here. I'm thinking of just making some simple sway bar links with heim joints to attach there and to the sway bar.

69427

I'm in a similar position with two vehicles. I've got an '85 suspension on my (unfinished) '51 Chevy pickup project, and a narrowed '92 suspension on my spare '69 frame. Both will need sway bar attachments when I get time to finish them. I've seen some guys just stick a bolt through that hole, but I never really liked the idea of the bolt in that particular spot working in a cantilever fashion. I'm probably just too cautious, but that's just my issue to deal with, I guess. On the pickup, I'm mulling around fabricating a bracket that will attach to the coilover mount (in addition to the A-arm, of course) so that the sway bar force will be distributed over a larger area, and the bolt won't try to rock around in the hole.
I'm limited by vertical space on the '69 setup, so I can't easily use the stock '92 "wraparound" bar linkage where it attaches to the A-arm, so I'm still working that issue.
Whatever you end up doing, post some pictures.

Mike

gene284

Mike:

Thanks for responding. I may go ahead and use that hole, and drill it out for 3/8 and mount the face of a heim there with a spacer. The material is just under 1 1/4 thick there.


I've done coil overs before, and you have to move the sway bar forward about 5/8 inch, so this ends up in probably the same lateral position, but perhaps 2" more inboard.

Here is the shock mount I made.



By the way what are you using for a rack and pinion for the narrowed C4 front suspension? I'm looking for a power rack that is 22 1/2 C/C, where the original Corvette was 25 1/2. Could use some help here.

69427

Well, after striking out trying to find a front steer rack in the local junkyard that would meet the width requirement I had, I ended up calling Maval Unisteer in Ohio to see if they could make a custom size rack. They said they could. Other than the four months of silliness where they kept losing my e-mails and fax's with the build specs and dimensions I sent them, it went okay. The actual part is a nice quality unit that looks just like the original C4 rack, except several inches narrower. And, given that it was a custom unit, the price was very acceptable.

gene284

PM to you 69427.