I am getting ready to install my 9 inch in my 51 f1. I plan to rebuild the back springs and remove some leafs, ploly liners, new shocks. I am thinking of installing mid fifty's sway bars in the back while I am at it. I cannot afford to install sway bars in the front at this time. Can I run with sway bars in the back only without handling problems or saftey concerns?
Thanks,Pete

 

You can,…………………but the rear sway bar in a leaf spring / shock set up is, in my opinion, a nice but at best a minimal improvement in handling. Take the money and buy a front one, a great improvement in handling.

 

Hi Pete,

I agree with Old F1. I was going to do the same thing - front and back, and all the inputs I have recieved is that it's a waste of money for single axel vehicles

 

You will want to start with a front bar, not a rear-only bar. Depending on how you drive, you can create a bad oversteer condition with a rear-only bar. These trucks are so nose-heavy to begin with, you certainly won't be helping matters with a rear-only bar. If you only have the money for upgrading one end, use it at the front.

 

Go to the salvage yard. Look for a Bronco 2. Thr front and rear bars work very well on my 56. Make sure and get all of the hardware. There is very minimal bracket fabrication to do. Bought mine for 35.00 and put another 35 in urethane bushings.

 

As said, sway bars add very little to a solid axle with parallel leaf springs, the springs themselves function as a sway bar to limit chassis roll. IMHO a good set of shocks (NOT the heavily advertised brands sold at your local Walmart or Pep Boys!) will help your truck a whole lot more than sway bars. I assume you will/have rebuilt the front springs as well?

 

Thanks all, This is why I am glad I found this site. I take your advice. I now plan to rebuild front and back springs and shop for " good " shocks. Any brand name you can mention & or part #'s
Pete

 

I used Monroe's on my new front end and I'm happy with them.

http://catalog.tenneco.com/monroe/shockSelector.do

 

Sorry Julie, but that's one of those heavily advertised brands I was talking about, and a likely culprit in making you feel like you need to look at swaybars. Those 30.00 shocks cost < 2.00 to manufacture so they don't put a lot of quality and testing into them. All the valving is the same, no matter what the application. and the quality control is virtually non existent. The customers they aim at have no real concept of what a good shock feels like nor likely to know when they are blown. Typically they are only changed when some alignment or brake shop looking for an add on high profit sale tells them they are worn out. (It's a safe bet that they actually are, they seldom last more than 20K miles, if they even worked when they were first installed). Some quality brands that are starting to cater to the hot rod market are Bilstein, QA1, Koni. Yes one of their shocks are the price of a full set of the big name (read "high profit margin") brands, but they are matched to the vehicle and to each other and usually carry a lifetime warantee.

 

Sounds good - next time I'll look at your suggestions!

 

I'm happy with my Monroes too. Perhaps it depends on the truck or how you use it. Mine's just a cruiser...

 

Yes that's true, if you just cruise on smooth highways, you could probably remove your shocks and notice very little difference. Leaf springs are more self damping than coils over bumps, and if you are not pushing it any in the corners the shocks won't move enough (or fast enough in the case of cheap shocks that only damp high speed excursions, i.e. the speed/amount of the shock length change not the vehicle speed.)

How many here would like me to do a detailed writeup on how suspension systems work and the function/interaction of the various parts and settings?

 

Interesting, I had not thought of that. Makes sense, the leaves rubbing against each other induce a lot of friction which will bleed off energy. That would imply that mono-leafs would behave somewhat differently than multi-leaf springs, not withstanding going from progressive to linear spring rate (I beleive mono's would be linear).

I've been thinking about how mono-leaf springs up front would offer up another 1 inch of suspension travel before the axle bottoms on the frame, as they are about that much thinner than my multi-leaf springs near the center (assuming they provided the same ride height and no shimming was necessary).

Gustave

 

Put me down for liking Monroes and Gabriels.

 

I would love to see that write up. I think it would also be very helpful for th efolks who are thinking about going with monoleaf springs or IFS front ends.

And, it looks like I'm going to have the opportunity to take you up on those shock suggestions sooner than I had planned - deja vu!

See my latest post on the "...Front End Savy" thread ... OYE!