Sway Bar vs Panhard Rod

[Russ348]

I'm a little confused. :? If the sway bar, both front and rear, helps stop dangerous body rolls, what is the purpose of the Panhard rod. The catalogs say its purpose is to stop side to side sway. Is it worthwhile to install a larger sway bar than the smaller original that came with the car? How about the Panhard rod?

Russ

[jim_ss409]

The panhard bar is just the rod that keeps the rear end from moving side to side. It goes from one side of the rear end to the other side of the frame and it goes sideways, parallel to the rear bumper. The stock one is fine.
I think a larger front sway bar is definitely worth putting in. There's a noticeable reduction in body roll. I think the rear sway bar also helps but the front sway bar is the most important.

[Impalaguru]

How big of a front sway bar is OK without it being overkill?
Ross

[SteveD409]

Most all that is available for our cars is a one inch, unless you got deep pockets then Hotchkiss has a 1 1/4 inch hollow, that looks really cool. Only thing available rear is, again, one inch, except Hotchkiss again, that has a smaller one. A little smaller on the rear is probably better.

I have heard that there are companies that custom make sway bars.

If you are thinking of ever going to a faster 605 steering gear then you should know that there are interference issues with using a larger bar with that set up.

I have used a 1 inch on my 63 SS with a 605 but had to remove about an 1/8 inch from the top side of my pitman arm just to get minimal clearance.

SteveD

[jim_ss409]

I see that PST sells both there own brand http://www.p-s-t.com/gm/gmsway.html and Hotchkiss http://www.p-s-t.com/gm/gmswayset.html sway bars. The Hotchkiss bars are bigger and more expensive. I'm using the PST bars front and rear on my 62 convertable. They work great but I also had to do a bit of grinding to get clearance for the upgaded 605 style power steering box. The fit of the rear sway bar wasn't exactly perfect. It fit okay but the dip in the bar that's there to clear the centre section of the rearend is in the wrong place. It's in the middle, and the centre section of the rear is off centre by a couple of inches. It fits but it doesn't look quite right. By the way, it's unusual to have a rear bar that's as big as the front bar but in this case I think it's okay because of the design of the front bar. The distance between the mounting point on the frame and the attachment point at the lower A arm is quite short. This means there's less leverage and therefore it takes more force to twist the bar. So a 1" bar would act a bit bigger than you might at first think.
If you don't mind a bit of extra work here's a link that shows how Dale, one of our members, used a sway bar from an 80's Monte Carlo. http://www.348-409.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1486&highlight=dale

[SteveD409]

I think all these 1" bars are made by ADDCO and the cheapest I have ever found them was at JC Whitney, but the last time I checked they didn't list them in their catalog.