haha, yeah, as opposed to the $7 for a salvaged unit, why NOT go new!! haha, just kidding. I really just got lucky to find this set up, and it happens to fit. I still need to spring for some new end links and bushings, as well as some paint or powder coating.

 

On a 6,800-7,500 GVW F 250 (68-69) without a "sway bar" in the front you will have mild understeer,(live with it), with a added bar in the front, understeer is ampilfied, crash time. Ford made a bar that bolts to the front radius rods in the late 60's. Later they went to a frame mounted bar (F350's). There is a rear bar that will help the rear to prevent understeer,(load the rear more). This works better on a long bed with a load (camper) or a empty short bed. The frame is too flexable on a long bed to allow a rear bar to function when empty. "Balanced F/R handling". Front and rear spring stiffness, wheel base, weight in the bed, sway bar front, rear, or both ends, vehicle height and intended use all play into what you want it to do and how it reacts. You can improve handling or make it worse. A truck goes from empty to a 3,000 pound load, tune the suspension for your intended use. Carl....=o&o>.......

 

Carl, no disrespect, but that does not make sence.
A front sway bar is not going to creat more understeer in vehicle compared to with no sway bar... at least not on our old trucks.
For silly argument sake, if it did, why on heavens earth did Ford start adding them in the late 60's? To ensure more truck sales due to crashed sway bar equiped vehicles?
Also, adding a rear sway bar and not adding a front sway bar is going to make understeer worse, not better. One of the reasons the trucks understeer so horribly to begin with is that the rear is soo stiff and the front so soft. The rear wants to stay flat thru a turn even without the sway bar, on account of the stiff leafs. Adding a rear bar will compound this.
The flexible chasiss is another culprit, which allows the front and rear to do thier own thing. A stiff rear with proper wheel/road geometry vs a soft front end, twisted up with poor wheel/road geometry.

This makes sence to me.
You want the truck to be netural handeling, you'll have to stiffin up the front significantly and also want a way to control the wheel/road geometry, aka swaybar. Then likely soften up the rear, and doing something about weight distribution is going to be interesting. But, then, you're 250 is a 1/4tonne... hauling a small load to offset cab weight.

Having driven my Cherokee, and my Mustang with front sway bars disconnected, (for off road articulation, and for dragstrip launches, respectivly) and having driven late 90's F250's with front swaybars vs my old truck with none, I'm rather confident a sway bar added to the front of mine, is going to do nothing but good in the handeling department.

I'm no expert, but these are my experiences, observations and understandings.

 

i agree when you turn in one of these trucks the angle of the wheel on the outside changes and lessens the amount of turn it is making due to the body roll and spring compression. a sway bar will limit the amount of these two factors and allow more control of the vehicle.

 

I have a Ford E350 MH chassis with a 460 engine. I obtained the correct Hellwig sway bar for the front (1 3/8 ") and when I took it to the shop to have it replace the original 1 1/8" sway bar, the arms on the Hellwig were 6 inches too short. Supposedly, Ford installed heavy duty sway bars on all MH stripped chassis but it appears not on this one unless the 1 1/8 inch sway bar is heavy duty.

I have to send the Hellwig back, reconnect the old sway bar and then drive the MH to a Hellwig installation service to see what the problem is. Anyone have a similar experience?

 

CleanLX, With a EMPTY F250 7,500 GVW the front end is stiff without a sway bar, it will understeer. Adding a front bar will load the outside front tire more making understeer worse. Adding a rear bar will help load the outside rear tire more, when it breaks loose you will go into oversteer not more understeer like you stated. A rear bar on a empty truck is not needed as the rear springs are too stiff. The problem is compounded more with the weight bias F/R and a long bed as the frame is too flexable. Now if the truck has a big top heavy high center of gravity camper on it the front and rear bars will shine as a great improvement over none. You will roll it long before you get into the understeer/oversteer handling zone. Leave the drag race stuff for another thread as traction not turning is needed. Street and mountain roads are not straight line were i drive. Carl......=o&o>........

 

hey guys i heard that front sway bar may interfere with headers, is there any truth to this that you guys know of? (69 2wd shortbed) this is probably going to be my next mod not that i got the power disc brakes out of the way!

 

it depends on the sway bar, Six Niner. if the bar is in front of the suspension (look in my gallery to see this setup), then no, a sway bar will not interfere. however if it is mounted behind the front suspension then it will definitely interfere.

as far as a rear bar goes,
LET IT BE KNOWN!!!!!

IT IS UNSAFE TO HAVE A REAR SWAY BAR AND NO FRONT SWAY BAR!!!!!!!!!!

For your own sake NEVER do this, as you will spin out and crash your truck the first time you try to take a turn at speed. I have tested this theory, and it is true. although I used my R/C car to do it, none the less it is a fact, that is why you never see it on ANY oem vehicles.

 

FLgargoyle, I should have mine on this weekend. I will write back as to the installation. I got it off a mid 90's Chevy Astro. I am not exactly sure of the dia. at this time. But, it is a least 1 1/8" or larger. I will list the measurement when I write back. It cost me $20 bucks at the salvage yard.


Robert P.

 

Carl... my name is Mike by the way, I should add that in my posts I guess... anyways...
Possibly my '69 250 is diffent from all the rest. Even on non-hussled sweeping corners the inside front of my truck raises to beat heck. If I had stiff coils this would not be the case.
Adding a front bar will keep the front of the truck flatter, putting more weight (rather not allowing as much weight to be unloaded) on the inside tire than without a bar. You realize the bar ties the 2 sides of the suspension together, and mounts to the chassis, and any body roll is only achieved thru over comming the torsional limits of the bar itself. Knowing that, you must realize that adding a bar to the front will help load both front tires during cornering, not promote loading to one side as I think you just indicated... ?
Again, adding a rear bar is not going to add load to the outside tire as compared to non-bar'd. Rather it'll attempt to more evenly distribute the load from side to side. And as stated above, running a rear bar and no front is not a good idea at all.
I agree a rear bar on an unloaded truck is a waste.
If you understand that sway bars are benificial when loaded or top heavy, apply that same theory to unloaded. The sway bar applies force from one side to the other whether the truck is loaded up with side boards and wet/frozen fire wood on, or empty. Either way that sway bar attempst to keep body roll under control... thrus loading the tires from side to side more evenly than if no bar is present.
Now, the drag race stuff would be a fair comment if my car was a trailer queen, but it's not. It's street/strip, and driven to and from the track, and, gets driven to and from work, and is used as a pleasure toy in the mountians. I have driven it on the street, on street radial tires of equal size front and rear, with the sway bar unhooked on occassion, and it's a down right sponge. 99% of the time it's driven on the street, the sway bar is hooked up, and the handeling/control/responsivness is night and day.
My Jeep, same deal, sway bar unhooked for trail duty, but, sometimes I get lazy and leave it disconnected for the drive home, and, the handeling is nerve racking by comparisson.
Now neither is a '69 F250, but all the principals apply.
Now, I'll admitt I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but you theory on sway bars is most confusing given my knowledge and experience.

I do not mean for this to be an attack, or nasty at all. Honestly I don't, but when you say adding a sway bar to the front of one of these old trucks is going to make handeling worse, that is just bad information.

The last word is yours sir.
I'll not explain it any further.

Mike.

 

Since i'm wrong i'll keep the wrong setup i've used the last 28 years running empty with F250's as well as autocrossing a 69 AMX. On the F250 stiff front springs, no anti-roll bar, stiff rear springs with a one ton anti-roll bar and keep doing my four wheel drifting on twisty back roads. Understeer becomes oversteer controlled by throttle applied. Drive safe with your added or deleted suspension modifications Mike. Do what works with for you. End of discussion. Carl.....=o&o>.......

 

hey beemer, how many ordinary people do you know that drive on the street who use throtle response to steer their vehicle? surely not the average joe. that's the whole point of a sway bar. the majority of people want the vehicle to be more sure footed without haveing to go to race driving school to figure out how throttle applied in an understeer situation will get them around a corner on the way to work or the store. lighten up

 

ok, i'll break my word here.
your last post intregues(sp?) me so I'd really like to discuss a bit further.
your 250 setup, with the stiff front springs... did your swap some non-stock ones in? I cannot understand why my front end is so soft. maybe some joker threw f100 coils in up there at some point in it's past? My front end goes over a bump/pothole and it soakes it right up, but when the rear hits it, it'll darn near pole vault you thru the roof. have to keep the lapbelt sinched down if not for safety, then to keep you in the seat.
I mean, if you've put stiffer than 'normal' springs in to make it work good that's cool, but for a truck such as mine with with spring rates so un matched, wouldn't such a truck(mine) benifit from a front swaybar?

and your comment, understeer becomes oversteer controlled by throttle... you're cheatin'! Useing the throttle to overcome the inherent dynamics of the vehicle. .

I may have come across as a little heated, and, I don't know why stuff on the internet can do that to folks... 'er... me... we're all meant to be helping learning.
I'd like this to continue as a discussion rather than me making light of you or vice-versa.

Now...
I'd love to hear about you AMX.
Don't hear of many of them still running? I've not see one since the mid 70's.
360... 401?

 

hey carl, pretty sweet autocrossing an amx. ive got a 64 hardtop falcon that i would love to get into autocrossing.
thanks for the info on the bars guys.

 

there is some good info here guys, but i am locking this before it gets out of hand. sorry.