Mikado463

sorry, my reply was to the Op, who stated in his opening post that the ride was too harsh, again and IMO those size bars for a small block, given the Op's opening comment are too big.

Now, for car to be tracked, big bars combined with PROPERLY matched springs and shocks .......that's a different matter !

gone from bad to worse !

jrm5657

I don't think I have ever seen a front sway bar that big, wow, need to get that thing off, along with the rear sway bar. Your front springs are probably way to stiff if the front is sitting high, and that is probably the biggest factor causing the harsh ride.

I would cut the rear sway bar off, and leave the rest of the rear as is. Then focus on the front suspension which is probably where you will make the greatest change.

TX63CONV

I was right the first time....where I wrote down 1 3/4 re-measured and its actually 1 1/8.

So the trans needs to come out for a rebuild eventually and I was going to pull the motor and detail the engine bay and rebuild the front suspension when I did. I was hoping to push that off to next summer but I may end up doing all of this at once over the winter.

The car has 3.08 gears so why would anyone put such a big sway bar on the front?

Mikado463

LOL, you really need to learn how to use a pair of calipers ..........the first time your said 1 1/4" ! no harm, no foul, just glad you're not measuring anything critical !

??? ...... not exactly sure what the rear gears have to do with a front sway bar, but if one is seeking flat cornering that usually translates into road course gearing not drag race gearing, which one would remove the front sway bar to improve weight transfer.

TX63CONV

I think it was the crawling out from under the car, looking for something to write on and then writing it down, while on a conference call for work. I heard someone actually say 'who's that grunting?'

I was thinking that if someone was going to go to all these efforts you might want to go to a lower gear. Not a 410 but not a 308 either. Regardless, I like the highway gears.

If I left the rear sway bar (i measured it again and its 7/8) what would be an ideal front sway bar? Is there a rule of thumb ratio? Really leaning toward going back to stock.

63 340HP

The 1 1/8" front and 7/8" rear bars are about right for balance if matched to springs (check to be sure the rear is not 5/8"). The welded rear bar mounts look like poor work, but the properly mounted combo with the right springs is an option (call VPB).

In the 70's there were two schools of thought for suspension upgrades. The factory Chevy Power manual and Guildstrand listed and liked stiff competition springs and reasonable size anti-sway bars. Some chassis tuners like Herb Adams preferred soft springs and thick anti-sway bars. Guildstrand preferred a single 3/4" front bar and 850#/in coils, with a soft 250#/in rear leaf. Adams preferred 1 1/8" front and 3/4" rear bars with 550#/in coils and a ~300#/in lowered rear leaf. Different driving styles and different set ups. There was a lot of other work on true competition builds, and competition radial tires were yet to appear, but both set ups were stiff.

This all changed in the 80's as computers modeled the suspension dynamics and the math of spring and wheel rates combined with digressive valved shocks and radial tires resulted in a compliant ride with good handling (think of the ride difference from the initial C4 in 1984 and the later 1990 models, the early a spine crusher and the later almost compliant but faster). Dual bars and soft springs with extensive work with tuned rubber and poly bushings sized for compliance as much as packaging resulted in the econo-sport sedans of today that can handle as good as a modified C2/C3 (with less spine abuse). The fact the C2/C3 upgrade kit bushing sizes are the same as they were in 1963 tells us all a lot about the lack of refinement since the mid 1980's poly bushing fad.

Build what you feel is best for you. Rubber spring pads and bushings will take some of the initial shock from the ride, but the bars and springs you have will keep the ride flat once the suspension is loaded. If you want less stiffness in turns, remove the rear bar links and tie it out of the way and swap in a 3/4 front bar to test the ride.

VETT457

A sway bar couples the wheel pair and adds roll rate: important for the front. At the rear it is necessary to de-couple roll of the wheel pair, (high rear roll rate = "jacking"): bad. Ideal would be zero roll rate at the rear.

jim lockwood

If the stock front bar is .75", that 1.25" bar is 700% stiffer than stock. I'm not surprised the car has a harsh, uncomfortable ride.

Put everything back to factory stock specs and I think you'll like the result.