aftermarket rear sway bar options?

[ramair351 10]

tell me what you have! pros.. cons... i have some fairly wide rear tires, i see some mount forward of the axle, some behind.... I am not into autocrossing, but would like it to handle well.

[Angel 24]

I used to run a 1 1/8" front sway bar and a 7/8" rear sway bar. The car definitely handled the turns well. The rear bar was purchased from NPD and was made by afco. It was a quality piece and came powder coated. It was designed as an add on and mounted behind the axle. The bar runs accross the rear trunk panel and mounts on the frame rails about 3 inches behind the bump stop. The end links mount on the leaf springs. I would recommend it for street use but probably not for track. A lot of people will tell you that rear sway bars aren't needed and that they may actually cause problems. Sometimes I would notice that the rear bar would cause a little bit of over steer. This would only happen at high speeds when merging from one freeway to another. Other than that, I liked the bar and plan to intall it again when the car is nearing completion. Although next time I might have to use a 3/4" bar since they only make 1" front sway bars for mustang 2 suspensions.

[69gmachine 15]

If you're not experiencing body roll on the aft end (which when taken to extreme results in oversteer), then you don't need it.

 

With the axle mounted solidly to the leaf springs, the leaf springs and axle combine to form a giant anti-sway bar of sorts. If you've lowered your car the moment arm acting on the body is also reduced. You're not planning to drive anywhere near the limit of adhesion, so I think it's a waste. If you change to any other kind of rear suspension, then you would almost certainly need a rear bar to balance the front, but from what you describe I would spend my money elsewhere.

[Max Power 74]

I decided against it, using beefed up rear springs to compensate, for 2 reasons. I don't like drilling into virgin frames, and rear sway bars compete for space with your exhaust in a very tight area.

[70Mach03 12]

I use the 1 1/8" front sway bar and a 7/8" rear sway bar. Mine came originally with the 15/16" and 1/2" stock bars. It actually handles very nicely. I actually drove it around a few weeks without the rear bar as they had sent me the wrong rear bar. I was surprised at how loose the rear felt without any bar and the small 1/2" bar did work better than nothing at all.

 

Also a good alignment will work wonders. I had a modern place with all their new laser equipped computers align it a few years ago. They adjusted until everything was in the "green". It went down he road nice and straight but didn't take the turns or corners as well as I thought it should. I found an old-time alignment guy who spent about three hours under my car removing old shims and getting everything squared away correctly. He backed it out several times to test it before finally finishing it up. I was amazed at the difference. It now goes down the road straight and takes the corners about 10 mph faster without the tires squealing.

 

Here's the specs he used:

 

 

Caster: 3.5° to 5° pos (the more the better).

Camber: 0° to 1/2° neg.

Toe (Total): 1/16" to 1/8" IN

[coloradostang 10]

I run the 3/4 rear mounted bar. It was an easy install. Have not had it on the road yet, but expect an imrovement in cornering. I run side exhaust so no issues with exhaust.