Installing Sway-Bars

OPG offers front and rear antisway bars for 1964-1977 GM A-body cars. We also replaced the front bar endlink bolts and bushings with a kit that includes urethane bushings. A new antisway bar bushing kit was also used. If your existing hardware is in decent shape and you don’t want to nickel-and-dime yourself to death, you can order just the bars and still come in at under 200 bucks for both--even after factoring in the $9.95 freight charge for each bar.

While some A-bodies came stock without a front sway bar, our Chevelle already had a 7/8-inch front bar. With the car securely elevated, removing it is a cinch. Loosen the endlink bolts and bushings from both sides. As shown in this photo, you can butt the wrench up against part of the car (the disc brake dust shield in this case), and while it holds the nut in place, turn the bolt with the ratchet.

Unbolt the antisway bar mounts from the frame with a ratchet. On rusty Midwest cars, some rust penetrant may be required.

With the endlink bolts and mounts unbolted, the bar drops right out in your hands. The whole removal process takes about 10 minutes.

The optional endlink kit (left) and antisway bar bushings (center) replace all front mounting hardware. Reuse the existing bolts for the mounting brackets. The endlink hardware installs on the car exactly as shown, with the lower control arm and the bar itself sandwiched between the two pairs of bushings. Install the pieces in this order: bolt, washer, and bushing up through the bottom of the control arm; bushing, washer, spacer tube, washer, and bushing between the lower control arm and sway bar endlink; and the fourth bushing, washer, and nut on top of the sway bar endlink. Be sure you install the bushings so the flanged sides are facing in toward the lower control arms and antisway bar endlinks, and the washers with their curved-up sides seated against the bushings. The supplied washers that came with the antisway bar mounting brackets weren’t large enough to cover the holes, so during our auto parts store run we got larger 3/8-inch diameter washers to fit over the bolts (right).

The antisway bar mounting bracket and bushing kit comes with special grease to prevent squeaking. It’s just enough to coat the insides of both bushings. Be sure to use all of it before slipping the bushings over the new bar as shown.

It’s a good idea to clean out the threads in the frame for the mounting brackets with some spray lubricant (such as WD-40) before installing the new bar. The new bar attaches to the frame in the exact same way as the old one coming off in step three. If the car didn’t come with a stock swaybar, the holes will probably be there anyway. You may need to clean them out. Worst case, you’ll have to drill new ones using the bracket as a template.

As described earlier, attach the endlinks of the bar to the lower control arms using either the new kit or your existing hardware.

With both endlinks and mounting brackets attached, there is a little bit of front-to-rear adjustment in the bar by way of elongated holes in the new mounting brackets. We found that by pushing the bar toward the rear of the car as far as it’ll go, we were able to get the endlink bolts to stand up straight and not place any angled preload on the endlink bushings. Once the bar is positioned, securely tighten the four mounting brackets and two endlink bolts.

The rear bar comes with all the hardware needed to install it on stock lower control arms (left). However, boxed lower control arms, like our Hotchkis lowers, eliminate the need for the supplied spacers but require the procurement of longer bolts (right). At the parts store, we grabbed four 3/8-shank, 3-inch-long bolts to replace the spacers and 2-1/2-inch-long bolts. We also picked up four additional washers to fit under the supplied aircraft-style lock nuts.

If you’re installing the rear antisway bar on stock lower control arms, the spacers install inside the arms as shown to keep them from collapsing when tightening the nut and bolts. Chances are that the holes will need to be drilled in your stock lower arms.

At first we wondered about the fit of the bar between the lower control arms and anticipated a struggle in getting the holes in the bar and the arms to line up. However, a few whacks on the bar with a rubber hammer was all the coercion needed to get the holes lined up very close. To line them up enough to get the bolt through, we used a Phillips head screwdriver through the mounting holes to pry the bar into position. Be sure to get both bolts started on the other side of the bar before commencing with the hammer trick.

Install the bolts and washers through the bar and control arm and attach at the other side with the other washers and lock nuts.

Securely tighten all four bolts and you’re done. We recommend installing the bolt through the antisway bar first. That way, if in the freak occurance that a bolt loosened and fell out, it would just fall on the ground and not potentially get caught in the spinning wheel.