Rear Sway Bar

[vette66]

I have installed the rear sway bar kit from VBP suspension products in Florida. I put it on my small block 66 that previously had no such sway bar on the rear. it went on OK and everything looks good. I put adjustable end links on with it. However this bar is a flat piece of rolled steel. That is to say that if you put it on the floor it lays flat with no angles in it just its normal "C" shape. Now if I put the car on a frame lift and the rear trailing arms begin to drop as the car gets off the ground the angle between the sway bar and the end link becomes so severe that it begins to bend the end link a couple of degrees from the pressure of the tires and trailing arms wanting to fall away from the car. What I have done is to go under the car and remove the end links before I raised the car a second time to prevent bending another set of end links. Has anybody else had this problem or did I get the wrong bar or is this just the way it is?

 

[66427-450]

I...........What I have done is to go under the car and remove the end links before I raised the car a second time to prevent bending another set of end links. Has anybody else had this problem or did I get the wrong bar or is this just the way it is?

:eyerole

I’d go with the factory design; with the links that pivot...... the point is to try to keep both T-arms at the same position, relative to each other (keep the car level, side to side), not to prohibit simultaneous movement up and down.

 

[JohnZ]

Putting a rear stabilizer bar on a small-block without a corresponding increase in stiffness of the front bar unbalances the chassis and increases oversteer tendencies, especially in transient maneuvers like rapid lane changes, etc., which is dangerous. The stock small-block setup is intentionally biased to mild understeer at the limit, which is standard OEM practice to minimize the car's tendency to spin at the limit. It's not a great idea to try and out-engineer the engineers who developed the Corvette's chassis by bolting on catalog parts without understanding what they do to the car's dynamics. I'd remove it for that reason alone, ignoring the fact that the one you have doesn't fit.

 

[vette66]

I did a complete suspension rebuild. Steering box, upper A arm shafts, poly urethane bushings all around, new springs front and back, new idler arm, new ball joints, new tie rod ends, rebuilt trailing arms, stainless steel shims, new 3:55 rear end, adjustable strut rods, Bilstein shocks, drive shaft and half shafts rebuilt and balanced. Front and rear end alignment I put a new front 3/4" sway bar with adjustable end links and thought that the rear sway bar with adjustable end links would just kind of complete the job. The car rides great now compared to before just that each time I put it up an a frame lift I will have to take out the rear sway bar links.

 

[66427-450]

.........I put a new front 3/4" sway bar with adjustable end links and thought that the rear sway bar with adjustable end links would just kind of complete the job. ..........

You may need a bigger front bar:
GM used a 7/8" front bar on the BB with the rear bar (or 15/16" up front with the same rear bar on F-41... that's 7 leaf rear and 550# front springs).

 

[Hib Halverson]

Be careful with that car at the limit.

A C2 small block with a 3/4 front bar and with a rear bar where no rear bar existed previously is going to probably be pretty loose and that looseness may rear its ugly head at a very inopertune moment.

You can't just bolt on a rear bar and expect it to do wonders for handling.

With small blocks, rear bars need to go with bigger front bars and, ideally, an increase in front and rear spring rates.

Here's what I suggest.

ft. spgs 500-550 lbs/in.
rr spg. 300-330 lbs/in.
ft. bar 1.0 in
rr bar 7/16 to 1/2 in depending on driver preference.
Billstein shocks with "sport valving".

alignment
1/4-deg negative camber all around
as much positive caster as you can get in the front
1/16 toe-in ft.
1/32 toe-in per side in the rear