g-body sway bars

[steve40]

Looking for advice on sway bars for a g-body pt build. I was curious what the difference is between the ridetech Musclebar and UMI, which is more like the OEM piece. Is there an advantage to any one design? Am I better off to stick with one company for the front and rear? I do like the idea of the UMI rear bar that is chassis mounted.

Thanks,
Steve

[SSLance]

I recently put a ridetech Musclebar on my car and it is a fantastic piece. Previously I ran a 36MM F-Body bar on the front and it was a large improvement over the F41 bar that came on my car...but the Musclebar is night and day better than it still. These cars need a LOT of front bar if you want them to corner right. The Musclebar is the stiffest bar I've found for the G-Bodies. Fit is great, installation went smooth, it's a well designed part. The side arms on the Musclebar allow extra room for wider tires on sharp turns over the stock style bars.

On my setup, when I put a chassis mounted sway bar on the rear after the Musclebar up front, it started lifting my inside rear tire on hard autocross style turns and was too stiff to run. I ended up putting my LCA mounted 1" solid bar back on to even it out. The chassis mounted bar was great on the street, but if you plan on autocrossing the car at all, you need way more front bar before you run one.

[steve40]

You're saying you'd need a lot more stiffness in the front bar before running a chassis mount bar in the rear?

Was there a noticeable difference in street manners with the different setups?

[SSLance]

Yes, go about halfway down this page https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...S-Barney/page6 and you'll read about my experience changing front and rear sway bars last summer along with videos.

The street manners weren't a whole lot different with the different bars, unless I really pushed it. The rear chassis bar did make it drive flatter on the street but I wouldn't say it was better or worse than the other setups. Once I got the rear bar and spring rates dialed in as good as I could get on the street, on and off ramps were a BLAST. I thought I really had something...until I tried some tight fast turns in a parking lot and it all fell apart.

[steve40]

That's a good read. I'll have to read the entire thread again, yours has been one of the builds I have been watching for advice and tips.

If I'm understanding this right, the chassis mounted bar is more suited to big sweeping corners were the lca one was better in tight conditions, just comparing an autox to an on ramp

[SSLance]

Kind of but there is more to it than just that. Front and rear spring rates, roll center heights, shock valving, etc all play a roll in suspension set up. The trick is to get the front and rear balanced so that it all works well together. When you get it right, it will work well everywhere.

I clicked on the link in your signature and I see you have some pretty sweet parts on your build already. In order to really make it work together though, I highly suggest getting Ron Sutton to help you dial in everything just right. His help has been invaluable to me with my car.

[UMI Tech]

Hey guys.

Our rear PT chassis mounted bar has three adjustment holes to help fine tune front vs rear roll resistance. The soft setting works awesome in the case of our Green Machine car (on auto-x) but like Lance said, there are tons of other variables. We actually remove one rear bar end link for road race to change the balance in that case.

The UMI front bar is currently an industry standard 1.250" CrMo bar. The G-body has some tough packaging which prevents a larger diameter traditional style bar.

If your car is destined for competition where balance is absolutely critical it will affect your component selection a lot more than a PT car just being used for fun back road driving. I'd 100% agree with Lance's recommendation of working with Ron Sutton to help select the correct parts. Ron is a UMI dealer (hint hint).

Let me know if you have any questions concerning UMI products. Either on here, by phone or at [email protected]

[steve40]

Thanks Lance, I've thought about a build thread here, just never got around to it.

Definitely a lot of advice and help here, I need to catch up on reading. I was thinking about Ron Sutton as well, I've always had to go back and re-read his posts, tons of information there.

One thing I'm trying hard to keep, is with this car, I want it to be an everything car, I do want to get out and try auto x events, but cruiser first.

Ramey, with your front sway bar does it clear the new tires you put on the Green Machine, I saw you and Lance both went with wider tires on the front.

[SSLance]

One thing I've always maintained is that I want my car to still drive well on the street too, and it does. You can make it balanced with neutral handling, and even make it stick like crazy on a course and with adjustable shocks turn it back into a great street cruiser with jst a few clicks on some knobs.

[jlcustomz]

The ridetech front bar design is pretty much like a splined bar setup, except that the ends bolt on to tabs welded to the main bar, rather than using splines. As stated, this type of design is the stiffest & will give more tire clearance. THAT SAID, they cost $500 & I can fabricate a lot of stuff myself. Places like Speedway sell splined bar universal kits & parts. I may build my own version someday.

For my next rear upgrade, I'm actually leaning more towards UMI's stuff. Softer settings on bars like theirs are better for cornering, but their stiffer settings give straighter launches with drag racing.

[Hemi8]

Well its an old thread but comes up when searching G-body sway bars. I use ATS spindles, Global West lowers, SPC uppers and Viking coil overs. I use 18 x 8 wheels with 4.5" backspacing. The wheels hit the ridetech sway bar when wheels are turned lock to lock. The ATS steering arms hit the ridetech sway bar end links as well. When the car is at ride height the sway bar sits in such a way that the end links are not straight, they are tilted back. I will be removing this overpriced POS and installing a UMI bar. I think the Ridetech is probably ok with a stock front end with stock wheels or one that has every single RideTech component they sell on their front chassis but if you are using ATS spindles steer clear.
86 G-Body.

Mike