TheSaint

If i mount a rear sway bar kit on my 1964 coupe is that something i will notice? Will i tell the difference with and without the rear sway bar?
I suppose it fits on a 1964 coupe?

Bluestripe67

You will notice a difference. Drive your car carefully around some curves or in the large parking lot and notice how it acts. Does it front plow, more commonly called "understeer" or does the tail want to come around, more commonly called "oversteer? Put the bar on and do the same drive and notice the difference. It should tighten up the rear, making the car less prone to roll and add to straight line traction. Springs, shocks and bushings all play a part in the overall handling package. Dennis

Larry N. Johnson

In general:
Sway bars reduce body roll in hard corners, allowing you to keep speed up a tad.
A lot less un-nerving and more stable.

The F-40 suspension option has rear sway bar on a 65.

Mike Ward

And a mis-matched front and rear set of bars will make handling very exciting indeed.

JohnZ

In '65, F-40 was only available with the L-84 fuelie and the L-78 (396/425hp), and it didn't add a rear sway bar for either application; the rear sway bar was standard equipment on the L-78, and it was NEVER installed on any midyear small-block, F40 or not.

Adding a rear sway bar without compensating for the increased rear roll stiffness by adding a stiffer front sway bar will result in major oversteer issues, as in dangerous limit handling.

TheSaint

Mike Ward What you are saying is that there is no purpose just to bolt on a sway bar at the rear if the front does not match the rear sway bar?

What about a kit like this one?
http://www.zip-corvette.com/ProductD...L2-SR&CTitle=&

Steve439

A 3/4 inch rear bar is a whole lot stiffer than a factory bar.
It doesn't look like that bar uses the factory trailing arm linkage, which I've read is a mistake.
I don't know about that aspect personally, a forum search should give some information...

If you think about what John said, the factory never increased (or added) sway bar stiffness when adding a heavy duty suspension.
In fact, they changed the front to rear ratio in the other direction by increasing the front bar diameter.

If I was going to add a rear bar I'd add the factory bar and change the front bar to the F4x (15/16) bar.

joe@zip

We've sold a lot of these kits with nothing but good results

TheSaint

Thinking of the tire dimension on my car wich is 205/75/15 may interfer with the handling/feeling of mounting sway bars i think?

Mike Ward

See response #5.

You asked about adding a rear bar, not about re-doing the front.

JohnZ

Nope, tires don't affect the installation. What matters is you MUST increase the front bar stiffness when you add a rear bar. The kit that Zip offers does that, but I don't know how their bar stiffness relates to the factory bars; the factory bars are solid forgings, and I think the Addco bars are tubular; Zip can answer that question.

The factory engineers understood the Corvette's chassis dynamics and roll couple distribution, and spent a lot of development time coming up with an essentially neutral setup, biased slightly toward understeer for safety, that works VERY well. Re-engineering the suspension out of catalogs isn't a great idea unless you really know what you're doing, unless others have exactly the same setup, have driven it at the limit, and are satisfied with its behavior. At the limit is where the fun begins (whether you go off the road pointed forward or backward).

Falcon05Dad

John,

Just interested if, in your opinion, a rear sway bar would have been engineered into the mix if wider, radial ply tires had been standard equipment in the earlier mid-years (63/64)?

Greg

Astrodokk

[QUOTE=JohnZ;1574746369]At the limit is where the fun begins (whether you go off the road pointed forward or backward).QUOTE]

John, you left out one thing...going sideways!
I have a rear Addco 5/8"sway bar and front Addco 1 1/8" bar. They feel solid and heavy...don't know if they're tubular or not.

I'll be at Thunderhill in 2 weeks to see how the car handles "at the limit".

This setup has been tried successfully by a few folks on the forum, and that's how I found out about it and decided to try it.

So far on the road, and I've taken some fast curves in the hills, although not at the limit, and the car handles better than before. It leaned too much at last year's autocross and I was told that sway bars would benefit the car. Many other factors contribute to the dynamics of a car, including all the mods that one does to it, as I have.
But to stiffen up the front, one has to stiffen up the rear as well to make the car balanced. Saint, if you stiffen up the rear, you have to do the same to the front.

63Corvette

I would like to respectfully add a comment here:
The SPRINGS determine the handling characteristics of the car. The SWAY bars are for tuning that suspension. In My Opinion, the stock C2 Corvette understeers (plows) terribly at the limit. IF you have a lot of torque (ie lower speeds and gears) you can induce power oversteer. However, the inherent understeer (push) remains.
TIRES are the main single advance for helping C2 handling, and I recommend Hoosier Street TD (bias bly) tires for track use only. Being a RACE tire, they need heat to perform to specs. If you plan to alter the suspension, I would recommend using a completely engineered package (springs, shocks, sway bars and bump steer kit) installed as a package.

66since71

I'm with JohnZ on this one... there is just no way you can beat the factory suspension tuning unless you do enough racing to evaluate each change on the track. If you think the factory F-40/41 understeers terribly, you are over-driving the car. Slow your turn-in speed and you'll run faster laps. Consider some negative camber in the front, too.

I absolutely agree that the best handling money you can spend is wheels and tires. The widest rims that will fit and the best tires.

A note on 63 and 64 cars... you dont have the mounting points on the frame for the rear bar. It was added when the big block came along (until late in the C-3 run, it was a big block only item.

Harry

DSR

'65 327 coupe
I run the Addco 1 1/8" front bar & the matching rear bar, Edelbrock IAS shocks & stock springs. This made a huge improvement in handling, little or no body roll on hard corners, eliminated wheel hop and smoothed it out over the bumps. The new addition of Michelin Hydro Edge tires (215x70x15) made a good overall improvement as well.

Dave

MiguelsC2

[QUOTE=Astrodokk;1574747514]I am running the 1 1/8 bar on the front and a 7/8 bar on the rear. With my 225/55-17x7 4 inch backspace rims and Goodyears. It handles awesome and theres about 1 inch clearance from the tire edge to side of rear bar.
That combo will sharpen things up!

TheSaint

I do have the mounting points because i am converting the car to disc brakes and just reciveved a set of brand new trailing arms for disc brakes with the mount for the sway bar.
I also bought new shocks and if i go for 215x70x15 tyres or 216/60/15x17 on V 60 rims i think the handling will be better

66since71

Saint, The mounting points I was talking about are on the frame, not the trailing arms. They consist of holes (and I recall weld nuts?) in the frame "kick-up" behind the rear axle. They mount the bushings that the bar rotates in. The holes in the trailing arm are for the connecting links. You won't have the holes in the frame, so you'll at least need a template to drill them.

V rated tires are a good choice.

Harry

TheSaint

I thought it was the trailing arms Harry. Suppose i have to drill then if i go for it. Do i have to tap the holes as well?