Sway bar testing with Hotchkis springs

[rohrt]

I have been considering making a change to my convertible bird. I like how "hotrodneb" put it in his street grip review post about going more to the touring side of pro-touring. One item that is mismatched on my car is the front swaybar. I have a 1 1/8 solid bar (Addco I think). I wanted to see how much the sway bar effected the ride so I disconnected the link on one side.

In all honesty I could not tell much difference with the sway bar disconnected. I did some quick right/left swerving on the road as well as several moderate speed turn. The car still felt very flat and planted. It did seemed to soften the ride just a tad. I would assume that it wasn't transmitting the bumps through both tires. I could still tell the springs did not absorb the bumps very well. I just thought it was an interesting test.


My Research shows
Front coils 600 ft/lbs
rear leafs 150-180 ft/lbs (175 progresive)

[F-Body International]

A sway bar is not supposed to effect the way the car reacts to bumps. What you had been feeling is the free motion of the lower control arms not being connect by the torsion (sway) bar. Some people even prefer to run with no sway bar. You may have found that you actually would prefer no sway bar.

The commonly "old school" debate was big sway and soft springs vs small sway bar and stiff spings.

Check out the Pro-Touring F-Body adjustable sway if you want one that you can actually tune for your application.

[rohrt]

FBI,

What is the link for the adjustable sway bar.?

"The commonly "old school" debate was big sway and soft springs vs small sway bar and stiff springs." I have herd this one before too. Just out of curiosity what did the WS6 TA with the 1.25 front sway bar run for front spring rates? I really think Pontiac nailed it when it came to that suspension in terms blending an aggressive ride with street manners.

[Skip Fix]

But hit a bump on one wheel sway bar affects ride.

I'm kind of a medium to stiff spring to kill brake dive and medium sway bars guy.