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Straight Front Axle sway bar

24K views 44 replies 13 participants last post by  chief36chevy 
#1 ·
Has anyone installed a sway bar on a straight front axle in an old pickup?
I installed an S10 rear axle on my 36 Chevy pickup and found that I had a roll issue in hard turns, so I am installing the sway bar that came with it.
I am wandering if it would pay me to install a sway bar on the straight front axle and what sway bar set up would you suggest?
 
#2 ·
I've built a number of straight front axle cars, and never put a front swaybar on yet. The heaviest were a few Tri 5 gassers, and even they didn't exhibit body roll. Of course thesee were all parallel leaf springs, and you didn't mention if you went parallel or transverse.
If you went transverse, then you may want to go with a swaybar if the car sits up high, and is fairly heavy. Another option with transverse is to install coilover shocks to reduce body roll.
 
#5 ·
55-59 suburbans had a factory sway bar on the front axle
i guess they were too top heavy for ride comfort
panel trucks did not, gm didn't care about freight comfort :D

as for the 38, i have heard that if you need a sway bar add it to the front axle first
you don't want a rear sway bar with out a front sway bar
i'm just recalling this from my finite memory, not sure where i heard it
just one of those tidbits i stored
 
#8 · (Edited)
Anybody have pictures of a factory swaybar on a '55-'59 Chevy or GMC truck? I'd sure like to see what they look like. Was this an option, since I've never seen one yet?
No swaybar here:



Or here:


Or here:


Or here:


I could go on and on, by searching the various posts at the '47-'59 Chevy truck forums for '55-'59 trucks, but is there even one example somebody can show me of a factory swaybar?
 
#9 ·
I have went looking too, but I know I have seen one in the past. It was on the Suburban not a pickup. In any event, putting on one would help the handling, it doesn't matter if they never had one, putting one on would help.

Brian
 
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#11 ·
Thanks

Wow I didn’t expect all of these replies. Let me try to answer all of your comments.
1971BB427
Your gassers probably go in a straight line a ¼ mile at a time. I drive my truck on the street. To answer your question I have parallel springs the same setup as factory. I have updated to Posies Super Sliders front and rear. The turn that I took that I discovered the roll issue was after I upgraded the front springs and before the rear. I am running a SBC. This issue may get better with the new springs on the rear.
Ogre
If you remember where you heard about installing the front sway bar first please post to this Thread.
1971BB427
I too would like to see a picture of a 50s sway bar. Not that I doubt it I just am interested.

chief36chevy:confused:
 
#14 ·
I don't know about the earlier GM trucks, but my '75 GMC K25 has a factory HD front sway bar and there was also an optional factory rear sway bar. They were primarily to stop body roll when the truck was loaded. Mine is a camper special, so it has the HD anti-sway bar. With two straight axles these trucks can get quite a bit of bounce to one side if you hit a bump with both front and rear wheel on the same side.

I don't have the truck here right now to take a picture, but I think antisway bar mounting is fairly simple.

Bruce
 
#18 ·
A front sway bar tends to induce understeer - which is what most people are used to. A rear sway bar tends to induce oversteer (tail-happy). If you only have one, it should be up front. If you have both, the front one should be larger (as was mentioned earlier - rear 70% of front, is a good ballpark).
 
#20 ·
Thanks

Thanks for all the input with all this info it seems that the general opinion is that if I don’t install a front sway bar that I should not install the rear.
That’s no problem I’ll pull the rear sway bar and store it until I can figure out a front. This is not bad as now I can get to feel what it will ride like with the new Super Sliders front and rear. Maybe I won’t need them at all.
:thumbup:
 
#24 · (Edited)
Front sway bar up date.

After spending days designing and making brackets to mount the S10 rear sway bar to my 36 frame I posted this thread about a front sway bar and found that you should not add a rear sway bar without a front sway bar. So I shelved that plan and started searching for a front sway bar. I read an article on the Stove Bolt page about a guy who installed a sway bar that was made for a 47-54 Chevy pickup on his 37. That got me thinking I contacted him and asked him to take a few measurements on his 37 so I could check for any differences between the two frames. He got back to me quite quickly and I found that my front cross member sits back about 3” more than his 37. After studying the measurements I came up with a plan to mount the sway bar to the front of the front axle and the arms to the front of the frame.
Check chief36chevy's journal.
Thanks guys for all your help.
 

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#25 ·
After spending days designing and making brackets to mount the S10 rear sway bar to my 36 frame I posted this thread about a front sway bar and found that you should not add a rear sway bar without a front sway bar. So I shelved that plan and started searching for a front sway bar. I read an article on the Stove Bolt page about a guy who installed a sway bar that was made for a 47-54 Chevy pickup on his 37. That got me thinking I contacted him and asked him to take a few measurements on his 37 so I could check for any differences between the two frames. He got back to me quite quickly and I found that my front cross member sits back about 3” more than his 37. After studying the measurements I came up with a plan to mount the sway bar to the front of the front axle and the arms to the front of the frame.
Check chief36chevy's journal.
Thanks guys for all your help.
I went to your journal, good clean work ,well thought out ,I guess your truck drives much better now ,what about the rear now,,i bought a rear setup anti sway bar brackets from a 70s Camaro with leaf springs that I will be mounting on the rear of my 53 truck the rear bar is 7/8 in,my front bar is a 85 Monte Carlo it is 1-1/4 in ,mine is a little nose heavy so I went with heavy bar.:thumbup:
 
#26 ·
I realize you guys are talking about stove bolts but the theory is the same no matter what the brand. Ford installed a factory sway bar on their straight axle cars in 1946-48. When I installed the parallel leaf springs under my 47 Ford I used an early 70’s Mustang sway bar mounted upside down and backwards in front of the rear axle. It worked perfectly and like my carburetor, did not know it was backwards. :D

There is no reason you can not adapt a sway bar to fit your application in front. If you do, adding another one to the rear will likely improve your handling even more.

John L
 
#27 · (Edited)
My S10 rear axle came with a sway bar. All my brackets are done and painted. I will reinstall the rear sway bar while I’m waiting for the cab to dry. I too had to move the rear sway bar to the front of the rear axle as the fuel tank takes up to much space in the rear of the axle.
I will update my journal when it is done.
I probably won’t know how it handles until fall. I have it tore down to the frame. Hope to get the cab in primer this week.
Thanks for looking
Chief
 
#32 · (Edited)
The nice thing about a sway bar is it does not know how it is mounted. You can mount it in front of the axle or behind the axle, right side up or upside down. Also it does not matter how long the links are. You will need to find a mounting spot on the frame and probably make brackets to connect it to the spring pads. It should be pretty straight forward.

Years ago I i mounted a 71 Mustang sway bar upside down and in front of a 9 inch ford axle under a 47 ford and it worked perfectly.

John

PS I just realized thos is the same thread I posted on back in May. Oh well. It still applies. :)
 
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