MII front sway bar
 

im running a heidts crossmember and tci lower a arms with bags . i am now trying to fit a sway bar ..i have a rear sump oil pan so i cannot mount to the rear of the crossmember. does anone have a picture or info besides what i already found 'searching' . thanks

Fatman Fabrications seems to have a front mount sway bar, see
Fatman Fabrications, catalog, page 9

both pics show it being mounted in front of the rack..
one above the control arm and one under..

says to call them

Sam

Sam,.

that's something I want to do after I get the dang thing weighted down with motor and sheet metal... I'm assuming that the ends of the sway bar connect to the lower control thru this hole ??

http://www.clubfte.com/users/jniolon/shiny003aa.jpg


and it mounts to the frame rails with the bushings... that might be tough.. my frame rails are boxed completely... probably wouldn't be wise to use self tappers to hold it huh ??? any suggestions

john

well, John, I don't know.

the pictures above from fatman seem to show the bar connecting in the middle of the space between the spring pad and the ball joint.
http://www.fatmanfab.com/getinlineimg.php?id=7
the (beautiful) lower arms in your picture don't have any material there currently.

I have the TCI front end, and the sway bar mounts in the back on slight extensions of the arm box (see pic 1), but connects to the front edge of the lower arm much closer to the center of the spring pad. (see pic 1)
I want to box off the lower side of the cross member arms too, but have to solve this mounting problem.. all hopefully this winter, now that I have the engine positioned, 'I think'.

I know your MII is much older (what with the gusset discussion which is stock on my kit)..

based on your beautiful powder coating, I would figure this out NOW, rather than when u have everything loaded up.

I have no idea where the front mounted sway bar would go, as my setup has the rack there. (see pic 2)

Sam

bump....bump....bump...

did you call fatman?

Sam

me call Fatman ??? or Keisha9 ???

I haven't done anything... been busy with a funeral in the family for three days...

I never noticed your bar is BEHIND your crossmember... neat set up... mine will probably have to go in front... the oil pan is very close to the crossmember on the back side... did your crossmember come notched for the pan ?? we did mine that way to give us a little more clearance... I bet they copied our design !!!!!

this isn't something that is pressing... I was just curious... I'll probably not even walk by the truck till after the holidays !

j:-X06

sorry, that wasn't targeted at you John..I've updated my post. My condolences to the family.

yes, the cross member came notched from TCI like that

for your setup I think the key is to find the exact sway bar that fits your lower arms..
then figure out how to mount it.

mine is under the 5.4l, and the notch doesn't help, even if the sway bar wasn't in the way too.

Sam

yep Sam... I think you're right... but I do get tired sometimes of having to reverse engineer every dang thing !!!x(

later
john:-X06

I hear yah.. and don't this the wrong way, but your wonderful decisions to change up many of your choices has taught ME at least to think long & hard about what I am doing.. so far I only have a bunch of things I would change if I could.:-X20

I don't know if there is a way to KNOW you're right on every little detail..

Sam

i have talked to them all. and everyone says it mounts to the rear of crossmember. i have the same problem with the rear sump oilpan in the way so... it sounds like i will have to custom fab something possibly re-vamp my oilpan. ughhh i wish i would have done this b4 i dropped the motor in!:-X19

Well, those pics on their website are definitely front mounted.

Sam

sorry about the death in the family...and thanks guys, i think i can find a front mount one but it may be difficult again attaching to the arms because of my Big Bags that take up all the room!..But, i will make something work , i just need to get at it instead of talking about it ...

I have the more work, less cost solution.

Measure your width where the bar mounts to the arms. Figure out an approximate space where the bar would fit, how much it needs to rise from the frame to the arms. Also measure your frame width where the bushings are. Write these down with an approx picture from several views.

Now go to the you pull it type junkyard and start looking at cars and measuring. Most cars are pretty much the same shape sway bar, you just need one that fits your dimensions. It does not matter what it is from. Just matters that the dimensions fit.

As an option, I have used the sway bar off a 90's GM FWD, which actually mounted from the back and going forward. I just turned it around 180 degrees and mounted from the front. It is a nice big bar that fit great. I have used others as well that I can't recall the car it came from. Just get all the bushing mounts and the end links while getting the sway bar so you have the parts you need.

A stock Mustang II front sway bar makes a great rear bar with some creativity. I used 3-inch muffler clamps and mounted the bushings to them on the rearend housing. Then just fab some links to drop from the frame down to the bar ends. The dip in the center of the crossmember fits real nice under the rearend center.

You can also spend about $125 for a new aftermarket one, many vendors sell them to fit generic Must II suspension.

Okay, I've got a question on this subject. I've tried mounting a sway bar in front of my MII that has air bags. The supplier says mount it at ride height, which I did. Then I was supposed to weld the final mounting brakets to the control arm. Before I did that I decided to let the air out of the bags to see what would happen (duh!). The control arms rise (as the vehicle drops) in one direction and the sway bar rises in another direction (towards the front of the vehicle) and they become very distant from one another. Has anyone dealt with this and what was your solution?