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Rear control arms for sway bar

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    Rear control arms for sway bar

    I've been led to believe that boxes equipped with a rear sway bar, and perhaps a certain handful of cars not equipped with it (but not all of production in general) have rear lower control/trailing arms constructed of thicker steel:

    Originally posted by jaywish
    The issue on the rear arms is not so much the holes. Any arm can easily be drilled for the second set of holes and the lips neatly and easily rolled. More significantly is the thickness of the metal used to construct the arms. My 89 wagon came stock with the heavy constructed arms that were not preped for a sway.
    Reportedly many/most other cars came with arms that look identical but are made of a slightly thinner steel. So take a set of calipers to your existing arms and compare that to the ones in the yard. I no longer have the dimensions.
    I now own two rear sway bars; one skinny one mounted to arms mounted to an axle which is sleeping at Derek's house currently, and one fat bar with no arms (but do have the hardware).

    I would like to put the fat bar on my Lincoln (along with the corresponding front bar), but I am concerned about this 'different control arm construction' issue. Do we know what happens if you put a rear bar, particularly the fat one, on the skinny arms? Are they just a little more flexxy or do they actually fail from fatigue?

    Worth noting I have not verified it has the skinny arms, just assuming it does. I can't find measurements to confirm what is what.

    Current driver: Ranger
    Panthers: 83 GM 2dr | 84 TC | 85 CS
    | 88 TC | 91 GM
    Not Panthers: 85 Ranger | Ranger trailer | 91 Acclaim | 05 Focus
    Gone: 97 CV | 83 TC | 04 Focus | 86 GM
    | Junkyards

    #2
    Been running the fat one on the 88 for about a decade of daily use without issues on whatever crusty rusty trailing arms. I doubt we’d see any kind of failure.

    Also not sure of the gauge metal on the HD arms. Need someone with a clean PI car to measure. I can measure the cleaner/no rust arms on the 90 wagon tomorrow if no one has a measurement on standard ones.
    1990 Country Squire - weekend cruiser, next project
    1988 Crown Vic LTD Wagon - waiting in the wings

    GMN Box Panther History
    Box Panther Horsepower and Torque Ratings
    Box Panther Production Numbers

    Comment


      #3
      I have the HD police control arms, but never installed them on the ‘87. The factory arms on it had the two holes, so I just rolled the edge slightly and bolted it in place. No issues with the install and the body roll was significantly reduced.


      My Cars:
      -1964 Comet 202 (116K Miles) - Long Term Project
      -1986 Dodge D-150 Royale SE (112K Miles) - Slowly Getting Put Back Together
      -1987 Grand Marquis Colony Park LS (325K Miles) - April 2017 + September 2019 POTM Winner
      -1997 Grand Marquis LS (240K Miles) - The Daily Workhorse & March 2015 + January 2019 POTM Winner

      Comment


        #4
        Yep, put a PI bar in the rear and an addco front on the '90 with no issues. If you're terribly concerned, box them with some of those plates like i bought and never installed.

        Comment


          #5
          As long as folks have bolted the bars to the stock non-HD arms and did not experience a critical failure as a result in the couple years following, that's good enough for me.

          I want to clean up or paint or something these bars but I also want to feel exactly how much of a difference they'll make, and it's not particularly hard to put them on or take them off, so I'll go for it I guess.

          When you say 'rolled the edge' I imagine we're talking about where the edge of the arm is bent out at 90 degrees from the vertical wall of the arm, and just further curling that up?

          Current driver: Ranger
          Panthers: 83 GM 2dr | 84 TC | 85 CS
          | 88 TC | 91 GM
          Not Panthers: 85 Ranger | Ranger trailer | 91 Acclaim | 05 Focus
          Gone: 97 CV | 83 TC | 04 Focus | 86 GM
          | Junkyards

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by kishy View Post
            When you say 'rolled the edge' I imagine we're talking about where the edge of the arm is bent out at 90 degrees from the vertical wall of the arm, and just further curling that up?
            Terrible picture since the bar wasn't the focal point here:


            It's the rolled edge at the bottom. I took some vice grips and just bent it down ever so slightly until the bar set into the grove nicely and lined up properly with the holes. The HD arms are flat in those areas.

            I definitely noticed a difference the the sway bar. The rear end used to have a little bit of a wandering sensation on rough roads and on tight turns. Ride quality was not impacted with the addition, but it did help keep the car more level during turns by reducing overall body roll. If you prefer the "can it lean enough to one side it might fall off the springs?" turning feel, YMMV.


            My Cars:
            -1964 Comet 202 (116K Miles) - Long Term Project
            -1986 Dodge D-150 Royale SE (112K Miles) - Slowly Getting Put Back Together
            -1987 Grand Marquis Colony Park LS (325K Miles) - April 2017 + September 2019 POTM Winner
            -1997 Grand Marquis LS (240K Miles) - The Daily Workhorse & March 2015 + January 2019 POTM Winner

            Comment


              #7
              Gauge thickness is covered in this sticky:

              http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...ase-Read-First!

              "The rear control arms I have on my 89 Grand Marquis are .08 thick (left pic), and the ones I bought today are .10 thick (right pic). So the police rear control arms are made out of 12 gauge steel and the non-police rear control arms are made out of 14 gauge steel if the chart I googled is right.

              Thickness (Inches)
              Gauge Num.---Nominal---Tolerance Range
              12 gauge------.1046------.1106 to .0986
              14 gauge------.0747------.0797 to .0697
              -Phil

              sigpic

              +1982 Ford LTD-S Police Car. Built 351w, Trickflow 11R 190 Heads, Holley Sniper EFI, RPM Intake+ Hyperspark dizzy, WR-AOD, Full exhaust headers to tails. 3.27 Trac-Lok Rear. Aluminum Police Driveshaft. Speedway Springs+Bilstein Shocks, Intermediate Brakes, HPP Steering Box.

              +2003 Acura CL Type S 6-speed

              Comment


                #8
                Thank you. Somehow that doesn't surprise me, but it irritates me that Google could not seem to come to the same conclusion through its indexing against my search queries (as a general rule, when I say I've searched for something, I Googled my query with site:grandmarq.net at the end).

                I do like body roll but this car has a lot of it. Too much, by reasonable standards.

                Current driver: Ranger
                Panthers: 83 GM 2dr | 84 TC | 85 CS
                | 88 TC | 91 GM
                Not Panthers: 85 Ranger | Ranger trailer | 91 Acclaim | 05 Focus
                Gone: 97 CV | 83 TC | 04 Focus | 86 GM
                | Junkyards

                Comment


                  #9
                  My car had arms with the holes and the lip already, but I never measured the thickness. Its had a police rear bar on it for more than 10 years without any problem.
                  86 Lincoln Town Car (Galactica).
                  5.0 HO, CompCams XE258,Scorpion 1.72 roller rockers, 3.55 K code rear, tow package, BHPerformance ported E7 heads, Tmoss Explorer intake, 65mm throttle body, Hedman 1 5/8" headers, 2.5" dual exhaust, ASP underdrive pulley

                  91 Lincoln Mark VII LSC grandpa spec white and cranberry

                  1984 Lincoln Continental TurboDiesel - rolls coal

                  Originally posted by phayzer5
                  I drive a Lincoln. I can't be bothered to shift like the peasants and rabble rousers

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Frankly i've been wondering if a cobra IRS would fit in the back of our cars. Only downside then is that the front suspension would be archaic in comparison. Sure would make these turds handle better though.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Yeah, there's a world of difference with the rear swaybar. Go over bumps, or railroad tracks, feel how the car WIGGLES? There's a shimmy in the rear if you don't have the control arms linked with that bar. It's a solid feeling now going over any road imperfections and it makes turning somewhat tighter (maybe not objectively) and more fun.
                      ,
                      Slicktop '91 GS HO 4.30 rear. '82 Mark VI Tudor HO, '90 F-150 XLT, '62 project Heep, '89 Arizona Waggin' and '88 donor in PA, getting combined.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Another one here running the thick police rear bar on stock lower arms. My father did it when he got the car ages ago. No issues here.
                        ~David~

                        My 1987 Crown Victoria Coupe: The Brown Blob
                        My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320:The Benz

                        Originally posted by ootdega
                        My life is a long series of "nevermind" and "I guess not."

                        Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
                        But, that's just coming from me, this site's biggest pessimist. Best of luck

                        Originally posted by gadget73
                        my car starts and it has AC. Yours doesn't start and it has no AC. Seems obvious to me.




                        Comment


                          #13
                          Hey im new here but want to put a set of bars on the front and rear of my 89 marquis from a police car. Does it matter what year car they come from and can i re use my from end links? And does the rear install right to the lower control arms or are there end links also?
                          1989 MGM & 2016 Tacomasigpic

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                            #14
                            No end links in rear. I don't see a reason you cannot reuse stock front end links. You can get sway bars from any year box panther police car. The difficult part is finding that nowadays.
                            ~David~

                            My 1987 Crown Victoria Coupe: The Brown Blob
                            My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320:The Benz

                            Originally posted by ootdega
                            My life is a long series of "nevermind" and "I guess not."

                            Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
                            But, that's just coming from me, this site's biggest pessimist. Best of luck

                            Originally posted by gadget73
                            my car starts and it has AC. Yours doesn't start and it has no AC. Seems obvious to me.




                            Comment


                              #15
                              79-91 should work for you up front and in the rear. Rear is control arm mount. You can reuse your end links and just replace the bushings. The energy suspension bushing kit is $20 at most local parts stores that carry them. It's not specific to these cars, but they work fine.

                              Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein
                              rides: 93 Crown Vic LX (The Red Velvet Cake), 2000 Crown Vic base model (Sandy), 2003 Expedition (the vacation beast)
                              Originally posted by gadget73
                              ... and it should all work like magic and unicorns and stuff.
                              Originally posted by dmccaig
                              Overhead, some poor bastards are flying in airplanes.

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