coordinating sway bars

[VinnyG]

I do have a rear bar. I didn't measure, but it looks pretty small. The rear anti-sway is adequate, the car doesn't wallow at all. but if I were trying to achieve perfection, it could be a bit stiffer (I know, that's what she said I probably won't change this unless I need to do something else that involves rear suspension. My question is, if I went to a larger diameter rear bar on this car, would I need to increase the front sway bar diameter as well to keep the handling "balanced", or is the relationship not anywhere near that critical? Thanks.

-VG

[sly]

yeah... if you don't increase the front bar, it would tend to under steer more. Too much front bar will tend towards over-steer though.

[1987cp]

Pretty sure big front bars are more plentiful, since large hollow ones were used on wagons that were comparable in performance to the solid ones used on fleet models. So if you've got small bars front and back, getting a bigger front bar is probably the logical place to start.

Two out of two wagons I've owned came with no rear bar, FWIW.

[johnunit]

good advice for a box, but he's talking an 03.

[86VickyLX]

03s would be a little more difficult. Best bet? Go for Marauder stuff.

[SVT98t]

The rear bars are compatable from 92+. The Marauder bar is your first option; with an Addco one being your second.
Always install new endlinks. Please!
It will make the car handle better. That's for sure.
The stock one is 17mm.
You can put the rear one on without having too much of a problem.
The front sway bars can only be 92-02, or 03+. If you do eventually do the front sway bar, you will need an alignment after.
Good luck!!

-ryan s.

[DriverSideImpact98]

Aren't the Marauder sway bars the same as the HPP bars?

[1987cp]

good advice for a box, but he's talking an 03.

What wiseacre created a late-model forum that doesn't have extra labels saying "box nerds, keep out", anyway?

[martinhudson53]

Thank you so much for the post. It's really informative!

[turbo2256b]

Think I have a 01 PI front bar. If not can probaby get front and rear ones.

[Crownvicman289]

If you do eventually do the front sway bar, you will need an alignment after.

No you won't.

[DuceAnAHalf]

your front bar should always be stiffer than your rear. on the 85 i have no front bar and a solid PI rear bar (car is set up for drag racing) even with normal size front tires the car feels like it is going to fall over when turning at 10mph

[Piece-it pete]

So on my non PI 03 MGM, the front bar looks pretty thick, the rear bar looks like someone ran a piece of wire and called it a sway bar. Is the Marauder front bar larger? Is the PI rear bar the same little skinniness?

Pete

[Crownvicman289]

yeah... if you don't increase the front bar, it would tend to under steer more. Too much front bar will tend towards over-steer though.

This is bass ackwards. Bigger front bar = more understeer, bigger rear bar = less understeer. Since the cars are balanced toward gross understeer from the factory, I don't see why a base front bar wouldn't work nicely with an HPP rear bar on an otherwise stock car.

The stock one is 17mm.
You can put the rear one on without having too much of a problem.
The front sway bars can only be 92-02, or 03+.

HPP rear bar is 21mm. On the -02 cars, P71s got the 17mm bar so the HPP was the only vehicle with the bigger rear bar. I'm not sure what the offerings were on the 03+, but since 92+ is on the table for a rear bar I thought I'd throw it out there. Though irrelevant to the OP, front sway bars can be categorized as 92-94, 95-02, and 03+. The shape of the front bar changed along with the knuckle in '95.

[Piece-it pete]

I noticed the front sway bar links on my 03 bolts to a different place than on my 97. The 03 bolts to the spindle behind the rotor, and the 97 bolts to the LCA (iirc). I'm not sure if it effects interchangability or not, just tossing it out there.

Pete