Mustang rear sway bar in a box Panther
Those dang police rear sway bars are hard to find, and the Addco 324 is kinda shit, so I went looking elsewhere.
79-04 Mustangs use a similar style of rear sway bar as boxes, bolted straight to the lower control arms.
I didn't expect to get this far with my idea...
So, here's a 21mm (or maybe it's 13/16") Mustang GT sway bar bolted into my '85 Grand Marquis, using some simple brackets. This is mainly a proof of concept, and my execution has some room for improvement.
Brackets are just 10mm flat bar, 2x13mm holes for the control arms (87mm center to center), and 2x11mm holes for the sway bar (101mm center to center). I don't own a drill press, so I had a local machinist do them for me. I rounded the edges and with some paint they look super professional!
Mounting is angled so the bar doesn't hang ridiculously low. These ended up being angled a bit too much, as it caused a minor clearance issue (more on that below).
The plates are mounted on the inside edge of the lower control arms, throughbolted with some sleeves to keep the arms from collapsing. That might also have some slight stiffening effect on the controls arms, which is welcome.
There's loads of clearance to almost everything, including the diff cover and the ground, duh. My mistake was angling it up a bit too high, as the shock absorber nuts contact the sway bar when the suspension is nearing full droop. Obviously full droop is a somewhat rare occurrence in normal driving conditions, but it bugs me nonetheless. I did check the clearance at full droop with my test bracket made from sheetmetal, but the bolt holes must've been that extra bit sloppy.
As it sits, the middle of the sway bar is at about the same height as the bottom of the differential, I could've definitely sacrificed a bit of ground clearance to clear the shock nuts. But I do have something in mind that might help with it.
Obviously the anti-sway bar performs nicely, significantly reducing body roll & improving handling without compromising the comfort and ride quality. The less dramatic weight transfer also makes steering into corners seem a bit more "direct", but it also kinda accentuates the vague steering. Overall the car feels much more balanced. Of course these are still 2-ton boats with a lot of weight to throw around, mine's on stock replacement shocks and original springs, but I like it that way.
The point of trying out Mustang parts is the availability, used and aftermarket. I'm way under a 100€ into this, everything included.
I reckon there's plenty of take-offs and junkyard picking for 79-04 Mustangs in the States, plus there's several aftermarket options to pick from.
79-04 Mustangs use a similar style of rear sway bar as boxes, bolted straight to the lower control arms.
I didn't expect to get this far with my idea...
So, here's a 21mm (or maybe it's 13/16") Mustang GT sway bar bolted into my '85 Grand Marquis, using some simple brackets. This is mainly a proof of concept, and my execution has some room for improvement.
Brackets are just 10mm flat bar, 2x13mm holes for the control arms (87mm center to center), and 2x11mm holes for the sway bar (101mm center to center). I don't own a drill press, so I had a local machinist do them for me. I rounded the edges and with some paint they look super professional!
Mounting is angled so the bar doesn't hang ridiculously low. These ended up being angled a bit too much, as it caused a minor clearance issue (more on that below).
The plates are mounted on the inside edge of the lower control arms, throughbolted with some sleeves to keep the arms from collapsing. That might also have some slight stiffening effect on the controls arms, which is welcome.
There's loads of clearance to almost everything, including the diff cover and the ground, duh. My mistake was angling it up a bit too high, as the shock absorber nuts contact the sway bar when the suspension is nearing full droop. Obviously full droop is a somewhat rare occurrence in normal driving conditions, but it bugs me nonetheless. I did check the clearance at full droop with my test bracket made from sheetmetal, but the bolt holes must've been that extra bit sloppy.
As it sits, the middle of the sway bar is at about the same height as the bottom of the differential, I could've definitely sacrificed a bit of ground clearance to clear the shock nuts. But I do have something in mind that might help with it.
Obviously the anti-sway bar performs nicely, significantly reducing body roll & improving handling without compromising the comfort and ride quality. The less dramatic weight transfer also makes steering into corners seem a bit more "direct", but it also kinda accentuates the vague steering. Overall the car feels much more balanced. Of course these are still 2-ton boats with a lot of weight to throw around, mine's on stock replacement shocks and original springs, but I like it that way.
The point of trying out Mustang parts is the availability, used and aftermarket. I'm way under a 100€ into this, everything included.
I reckon there's plenty of take-offs and junkyard picking for 79-04 Mustangs in the States, plus there's several aftermarket options to pick from.
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