Spline Sway Bars

[Gregersen46]

Anyone running a spline sway bar on a chevy A-body?

[Gregersen46]

I find the bars. I don't know what is a good size bar to run. And don't know a good arms or angle to get.

[Schwartz Performance]

ridetech offers their musclebar for A-bodies.

[csouth]

I find the bars. I don't know what is a good size bar to run. And don't know a good arms or angle to get.

Are you thinking of building your own? If so, I think you will stll have to bend the arms some.

[Gregersen46]

I seen Ride Tech's but to deep for my pockets. I want to built my own. What should I look for?

[astroracer]

Not to hijack the thread but I have a question about splined bars vs tubular bars.
Has anyone taken suspension travel into consideration when applying a splined bar to a "normal" travel, street style suspension? I see the splined bars used on drag cars (where the cars don't see any real corning forces) and outright road race cars where the suspension travel is very limited.
I looked at splined bars for the van but ended up designing tubular bars because I determined the suspension travel would be to great for the splined bar.
Does anyone know what the travel limit would be for a splined bar? 2 inches? 4 inches? I am talking about a situation where, like entering an angled driveway, the suspension goes into jounce on one side and rebound on the other. Will the bar get to a point where it limits jounce or rebound, holding a tire off the pavement? Or would it tend to strip the splines off the bar or link?
Mark

[Schwartz Performance]

Mark, just like tubular or solid bars, splined ones can move! You can get solid splined bars or hollow.
Most circle track suppliers provide bars and arms. Expect to spend 175-300 on the bar and 100+ on the arms.. 50+ on the bushings. Then you're close to the ridetech one lol.
We street drive our cars often and have had no issues with them and jounce. To get to the point of stripping the splines takes a ton of force. They're designed to be strong- think about it.. NASCAR uses them, so do circle track cars. They pound the crap out of their cars, more than what a stock Chevelle would do with a flexible chassis over a curb. When you say a tire would be left up in the air, I assume you mean the opposite rear tire from what hits the curb first?

[astroracer]

Thanks Jeff,
To clarify my question. I know the bars are strong, that's not the issue. I am just wondering about "total" suspension travel. Dedicated race cars have no where near the suspension travels a street car has. As an example: Looking at cross-car tramp, say, left front suspension in full jounce, right front suspension in full rebound. Street cars generally have 3 to 4 inches of jounce and 2 to 3 inches of rebound. That makes for a total (cross-car) travel of 5 to 7 inches. At some point a straight, splined bar will loose compliance (read that as the ability to twist without deformation) and start holding the unloaded corner up, either off the ground or high enough to loose grip.
I am just wondering where this point in the suspension travel is. How much torsional twist will a straight bar allow before it starts to lift the unloaded corner? Of course, the larger the bar the less suspension travel will be required to reach this point.
Is the OP okay with this thread direction? We can start a new thread if need be.
Mark

[Smoker03]

Check out a trophy truck and you will see splined sway bars. Many aftermarket sway bars for off road trucks or jeeps are splined and they see 10" or more travel and can fully articulate side to side.

[fast98]

Mark,

If you had to get more movement out of the bar(degrees of twist) you could lengthen the arms. That said I don't see any reason why a splined bar would be any different than a bent bar. If they are both made from the same spring steel and heat treated the same all things should be equal.

[chevelletiger]

Mark,

If you had to get more movement out of the bar(degrees of twist) you could lengthen the arms. That said I don't see any reason why a splined bar would be any different than a bent bar. If they are both made from the same spring steel and heat treated the same all things should be equal.

most,and im not naming any vendors, do not use spring steel or heat treating for there sway bars most are cold formed dom mild steel.you can get the parts from speedway eng. yhe arms are 4130 i think and you can bend the in a press with some heat from a torch then have them heat treated,or get mild steel ones and cold bend if you have a huge press.ive been able to bend 3/8 1018 with a 2ton press at work but worry if it kicks out is scary.phil
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