I'm using stock arms with strut rods. 460 with aluminum heads and intake. Alignment guy says a front sway bar would improve handling. Being a panel truck, I drive it like you would drive a top heavy van; fast in a straight line, sloooow around curves. Those of you with experience behind your input; did you notice any improvement with one? I have a 9" posi with NO sway bar in rear btw.
As always, thanks for the help.
James

 

Yes it makes a world of difference, i finally got my panel moving on its own and found out.

 

Go to know, thanks

 

Yes add one, wouldn't hurt to have one on the rear also.

 

Where did you find sway bar to work on front?

 

I bought mine from Fat Man. Kind of pricey, but big and beefy. Fit great.

 

hwyhogg, here is a pic of frt sway bar. not to good at this pic thing, see how it goes.

 

Thanks! I'll see if they have one for stock lower control arms. Was the difference most apparent in curves or straight line feel as well? Also what shocks did you use?

 

Has any one found a salvaged bar easily modified with thr stock lower control arm? I don't want to change them. Nothing will probably be a bolt in, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel, if someone can share any model they've used to adapt to this set up.
Thanks

 

NO IFS should be used without a sway bar! Truck without one will handle somewhere between a drunken elephant and a dump truck. All MII type IFS are a different width from stock , so will require a matching width sway bar. For installations where an OEM shaped or sized bar is not available, you can always use what we call a NASCAR or Sprintcar style bar. Straight bar with splined ends of various diameters and lengths with steel or aluminum arms also splined of various lengths and configurations. A fixed or adjustable length end link finally connects the arm to control arm. The ends of the arms should be parallel to the ground at rest. Speedway sells some bars like this, or check with circle track and racecar chassis parts suppliers. With the high roll center of our trucks I'd use the stiffest bar you can find. I've written several posts on here on the purpose and function of a sway bar and quality shocks. Try an advanced search on this forum for keywords: sway bars, shocks and my user name.

 

Yes it stops the body from leaning when you turn. Shocks Napa 94055 came with the kit.

 

Sway bars have no affect when traveling straight ahead, or when both wheels move up and down together. It just pivots in it's bushings.

 

Here's an extensive write up on shocks: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...t-to-know.html
To update, there are a number of quality shock manufacturers that now cater to the street driven hot rod crowd.

 

AX, thanks for the guidance. x100 On the drunken elephant. The alignment guy shook his head and chuckled when I told him I did a 3500 mile round trip on Power Tour last year. I'll read the suggested posts and begin researching. I'll.call speedway too...pretty sure they'll be less expensive than Fatman. Of course a lot of their stuff is Heidts. Hope they have something for stock lower arms with struts.

55panel, thanks for the pictures....helps a lot.

 

Type lower arms you have is immaterial as long as links to bar are vertical at rest, so you need to know distance between SB link mount points on lower arms at rest, find or buy a bar that matches that dimension and is stiff enough.