G-Max box sway bar

[clutch47]

Anybody try one of these yet?

[Arquemann]

Hmm, rear looks to be about the same price as Addco 650 from Summit and this comes with brackets.
Factory popo bar is 1" too, right?

[gadget73]

yes

my general aversion to these aftermarket bars is the mounting setup looks like bullshit, and this looks to have the same sort of bullshit that the Addco does. This just does not look strong or not inclined to damage the arm to me. I'd feel a lot less bad about it if there were spacers between the metal plate and the top of the arm. That would prevent over-tightening the bolts from collapsing the control arm.

[clutch47]

I'm not a fan of the mounting either. AT ALL.
Looks half assed and hinky, and I wonder through flexion how close it comes to the rear end cover..
Hence my question if anyone has used them.
The Addco 650 was unavailable forever..

[Arquemann]

I'm not a fan of the mounting either. AT ALL.
Looks half assed and hinky, and I wonder through flexion how close it comes to the rear end cover..
Hence my question if anyone has used them.
The Addco 650 was unavailable forever..

Weird, I thought I saw the 650 available on Summit last summer. Still the Gmax bar is the same price, I'd probably make new brackets anyways.

[JeffBoudah]

Yes, same plate setup that you need to actually drill your arms to mount. Like I've said before, I tried to get addco to make a proper OEM style bar, even offered to get my police spec bar 3d scanned at work and they said they couldn't do the flat tangs with the limited tonnage of their press. If you look at their G-body bar it has two "islands" of material upset outward to produce the mounting surface, not a large flat tang.

[clutch47]

I've got the ADTR arms and I'm wondering how I can capture the sway bar and then attach it through the supplied and supported holes.
I'm going to contact them directly with a few questions.
Is the bar forged?
What exactly is it made from and can it be milled, welded or drilled?

I'm thinking of a tight fitting sleeve..maybe 8ninches long with say 1/2" wide slots milled lengthwise about 3 inches long.
The sleeve having threaded spacers to put a bolt through the arm into the sleeve and almost acting like a setscrew too.
Once the bar is test fitted, mark it, remove it and weld the sleeve to the bar.
In this way, any heat that changes the bar strength would be away from the stress point of where the bar enters the sleeve...
Thoughts?

[gadget73]

if you could make up an adapter bracket from angle iron that would bolt through the arm in the stock location and give a flat to bolt this to I think you'd be OK. I wouldn't weld it though, the bar is basically a spring and applying that much heat will ruin the temper. Depends on the particulars but you'd get a glass hard spot or a cheese soft spot, neither of which are useful in a spring.

also being basicallt a spring its probably hard enough that drilling or milling is going to be a miserable experience.

[clutch47]

If you go to this on their site and look at the documents tab..their installation instructions show that almost exactly BUT a hinky method of capturing the bar onto the angle iron...

[gadget73]

pics I saw in the instructions were a flat plate of metal with holes drilled through the top of the arm and just laying across the open face of it. No support for the arm itself, over-tightening the bolts would just smash the thing. I was thinking angle iron bolted through the side with spacer bushings inside like the factory setup so it can't collapse the arm. The attachment method of the bar to the plate or angle is hinky in a different way, one bolt and a U bolt. Not really a lot you can do with that I don't think, I just don't want the control arm wrecked.

[JeffBoudah]

Hypothetically, let's say we were able to find a manufacture to make a short run of custom bars. What should the price point be? Obviously it can't be 1994 junkyard pricing and qty would determine everything on that... basically would you pay more than an addco bar, because it wont be cheap...

[clutch47]

If a company were to produce a piece that is on par with the quality of the ADTR arms and was allowing clearance for the cast pinion supporting rear end covers out there, I'd think they could kinda name their price within reason.
If their sway bar would bolt up to the stock arms too, and came with the required hardware and spacers so it didn't distort or crush the stock flimsy arms, they'll sell even more of them.

[JeffBoudah]

Probably wont have clearance for those covers since they vary from mfg to mfg.

It would be as OEM as it could be since they would be using a 3d scan I would provide, or my physical bar shipped to them to reverse engineer. I may have found a source to do them, they seem receptive to the idea. Betts Spring in CA.

[tbear853]

Hmm, rear looks to be about the same price as Addco 650 from Summit and this comes with brackets.
Factory popo bar is 1" too, right?

OEM factory bar was 3/4", maybe 13/16" ... as I recall. Certainly not 1".

[Arquemann]

OEM factory bar was 3/4", maybe 13/16" ... as I recall. Certainly not 1".

The normal tow pack bar is probably the 13/16", but the police bar I mentioned is 1".