John,
The message from Bill is correct in theory, it all depends on what handling
charicteristics you are trying to acheive from your car, as well as what
other changes are made. With no front sway bar, spridgets oversteer, and
are "twitchy". Very early cars have no sway bar up front. With stock
185/80R13 tires, the wimpy stock sway bar was all that the tires could
handle without loosing grip, and understeering. However, move up to wider
tire contact patches, ie 70 or 60 series tires, and the balance is changed.
The wider tires and softer modern compounds provide more grip, and can
handle a stiffer front bar. I did not like how much my car "leaned" into
corners, which changes the camber angle & contact pressure between the front
tires, so stiffer & shorter front springs, combined with a larger front
anti-roll bar helps keep the nose flatter (less roll) in cornering. That
did result in undesireable understeer, which I corrected by adding a rear
anti-roll bar. I found that the rear bar needed to be one size smaller than
the front to avoid serious oversteer, and that handling was better with
stiff poly bushinges up front, but softer rubber bushings in the rear. With
the combined changes, the correct neutral handling was restored, but now my
car corners very flat, like it is on a rail, and steering inputs feel more
direct. A second advantage I have noticed, is while most spridgets "lean"
to the driver's side, with front & rear anti-sway bars, my car sits level
David Riker
davriker@pacbell.net
http://home.pacbell.net/davriker/
http://community.webshots.com/user/fool4mg
----- Original Message -----
From "Bill L" <pythias at pacifier.com>
To: "spridgets" <spridgets@Autox.Team.Net>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 7:39 PM
Subject: rear sway bar....
> Hello spridgets,
>
> as far as "theory" goes.....
>
> a front sway bar is cure oversteer, a rear sway bar for
> understeer. (loose, or tight respectively for the
> NASCARites)....
>
> since spritgets tend toward oversteer, (at least after they went
> to 1/2 eliptical springs instead of 1/4's in the BE and early
> SB's (square bodies) a small front sway bar is all that should
> be needed for "neutrality", .. however, one could install a
> front sway bar that is too large, (the advice given to me for my
> '66 was to go for the 5/8" bar NOT the 3/4 or 7/8) it would then
> be advantageous to have a small rear sway bar. .......
>
> soooooo.... skip the rear bar, get the right front bar, and
> motor on! (my 2 cents)
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