trailor

Last week I installed UPR Chrome Moly Single Adjustable Urethane Lower Control Arms and had quite a time reinstalling the rear sway bar. In fact, it took me and two other guys, all of which frequent the gym and are fairly strong, to get it back into position. Now I am on to the next project: MM Panhard Bar and Torque Arm...

While I am only near the beginning of the Panhard Bar install, I am already having trouble with this sway bar. I was instructed to remove only the drivers side pivot bolt for the LCA in order to remove the spring. Well I couldn't get enough tension off the spring without removing the pivot bolt off the passenger side LCA as well. Now I am trying to reinstall the LCA pivot bolts on both sides and hardly have any room to maneuver bc of this damned rear sway bar.

My question is, what are the drawbacks to removing this sucker (rear sway bar) completely? My end goal for this car is to have a grippy 1/4mile runner that isn't a joke around turns, but have no intentions of auto-X, just some weekend driving and toying around when not at the track. Will my grip at the drag strip suffer from its removal? Will I have an unpredictable daily driver on everyday turns? Or will the PHB and TA compensate enough for the lack of a rear sway bar??

THANKS!

cliffyk

It's a stabilizer or anti-roll bar, not a sway bar (sway is what pendulums, and tall buildings in the wind, and drunken drivers trying to touch their nose do)...

Nomenclature aside, get rid of it. For you intended use and with your rear-end upgrades it will do little to nothing for your--except be a PITA to work around..

BLKSTANGER

My rear sway bar broke a few months ago. I took it off till I could get another one. I have to tell you I can't tell it's gone at all. I drive some curvy roads at times and don't miss it at all.

cliffyk

<pet_peeve[14], skip="if easily offended">

I do not mean to be a dick about this (despite the fact that I am good at it) however it is NOT a sway bar. I realise this is what "most/many" people call it, and what most of the vendors call it so as to cater to the "most/many" that call them that--however if you ever have a discussion with an automotive engineer or serious suspension tuner they will judge your "knowing what the heck you are talking about" by your using the correct term.

Stabilizer or anti-roll bar...

</pet_peeve[14]>

djoneill

The rear stabilizer balances the car in a corner. Removing the rear bar from a car equipped with one from the factory will result in pronounced understeer.

Cars delivered w/o rear bars typically have smaller front bars to lessen the understeer.

TRUEBLUE3934

The above post is correct!!!
Removal of the rear anti-roll bar will result in a car that will understeer, or push in corners. If handling is of any concern to you, DON'T remove the rear bar. Your other suspension mods do NOT compensate for the absence of the rear bar. The front and rear bars are intended to work together to provide a decent balance of grip while cornering. There is NO benefit to removing the rear bar, so you should plan to keep it on the car.

trailor

ok so the front and rear anti-roll bars work together... what if i already removed the front one almost a year ago, and noticed no difference whatsoever??

i think i will take cliff's advice and just leave the SOB off of it. Jazzer, any input??

brent22

They work together, if you already removed the front one just leave the back on off.

TRUEBLUE3934

Actually, the springs and bars are tuned to work together(or bars tuned to work in conjunction with the springs).
If you really didn't feel any difference when you removed the front bar... don't worry about any suspension mods at all. A car missing the front bar on a car equipped with a set of bars will absolutely handle like crap. If that feels OK, I wouldn't waste a nickel on suspension mods.
The expense of a PHB and TA will be a waste for you.

JAZZER,
Please chime in on the bars.

Jazzer The Cat

To go the next step, an "anti-roll" bar is often considered exactly that... and allows NO body roll. This is a somewhat common installation for a full-time 1/4 mile only ride and is NOT a good thing on the street. This being said, a sway-bar, anti-roll or stabilizer bar is perfectly acceptable as a description and even the God of all interwebz knowledge says so

Trailer and TRUE.... I am with what many others are saying and to leave the rear bar on for the street. The sway-bar is a tuning device and designed to address relatively small amounts of understeer/oversteer. Removing one or the other, can create a pretty serious imbalance in one of these conditions (all else being equal).

Unless you do some research on a properly rated spring to compensate for the lack of a rear bar, I would not recommend you remove the front one. I see no advantage to removing the rear one, for either DD or 1/4 mile use.

Jazzer