[Guest]

The other night I was doing the front swaybar delete on my Caprice (was planning on going ot the track, but it's closed ) and I noticed something. After I disconnected the endlink on one side, that side end rose almost an inch. After I did the other side, it evened out. I looked at the design and figured that the swaybar pulls the suspension up a bit lowering the car. So removing the endlinks let the car raise up a good bit.

Well, I'm going to put the swaybar back on the car. Turning is SCARY with no front swaybar (no rear one either). And the car floats evenmore (factory FE1 "soft ride" package). I've wanted to lower the Caprice to about where the Impala is stock.

So, I look at how the endlinks are done and start thinking. I wonder if I were to trim the spacer bar that seperates the bushings if it would lower the car a bit? I know it would mess up my alignment, but it needs to be re-aligned soon anyway. Plus I rotate the tires fairly often.

It seems that it would work. It's basically a free mod and is cheap to put back to stock (just find a new tube to replace the old one). And it looks effective.

Heck, I'm wondering what would happen if I were to totalle eliminate that bar altogether?

 

[Guest]

AdioSS/Cheston

No can do what you are thinking.....

First, what is your front bar? Stock? Is it straight--ie, do the ends of the bar contact a flat surface at the same time?

Unless something is tweaked, there should not be the type of shift you described when disconnecting the sway bar.

Is it possible that the front springs are not the same, or one is weak? That is the only other way I could see what you described happening.

Lowering the car is done by several means:
--shorter tires
--shorter springs
--raised spindle height--ie.BellTech spindles
--repositioned/longer lower ball joint stud

I'm repeating myself, but to reemphasize the point, the sway bar should NOT affect ride height, if all other design dimensions are correct and nothing is tweaked on the car or the bar.

Yes, the car will work alot better with a front sway bar....especially if you have a rear bar. It is a compromise as to what size to use, since GM typically tunes their suspesnions to understeer--a bigger front bar will make that worse (more understeer) unless a corresponding change in REAR bar is done at the same time. No front bar will put the car more toward oversteer (wants to spin out)--turn-in is "great", but the chassis will lean alot more, which radically changes the camber on the outside front wheel--it goes positive, which means the tire is not staying flat on the road surface, and the tire's ability to generate cornering force is greatly diminished. You'll quickly go from "loose" to "tight" in NASCAR terms.

Once again, GM, like all other manufacturers, puts things like stabilizer shafts on cars for a reason--if it wasn't necessary, it wouldn't be there. They don't build cars just to go in a straight line.

Time to get some Impala springs.....

 

[Guest]

Bill, it turns out that I was totally wrong. The car just sits really high all the time. ANd I'm used to the SS with the short tires and 17" rims and the lower than stock look.

I put the bar back on and it didn't change the height at all. It does drive MUCH better now.

I did like how the front torqued up when I hit it though. It made that 305 launch even harder