Thread: Body Roll
View Single Post
  #8  
Old 06-10-2015, 01:52 PM
JLMounce JLMounce is offline
Ultimate Warrior
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Greeley, Colorado
Posts: 4,541
Send a message via AIM to JLMounce
Default

Just for the sake of not confusing the OP, I do want to point out that a rear sway bar functions a lot differently on a coil spring car vs. a leaf spring car like an F body.

The problem is that with leaf springs, the axle itself functions as a suedo sway bar. A traditional leaf spring is anchored to the axle and has no inherent pivot along the leaf's parallel axis. What pivot does occur happens primarily in rubber bushings in the eyelets. This is why you never run solid bushings in the eye of a leaf spring. You'd have near 100% bind during cornering.

The converging four link and coil spring setup of the bigger cars allows the axle to pivot a good deal more before the 4 link starts to bind. As a result using a rear sway bar in this application makes more sense.

That's of course not to say that a sway bar can't help a leaf spring rear suspension. It's just usually not necessary on a street car or hobbyist motor sport cars.

If I was running Global West Cat5 leafs that contain spherical bushings and are designed to allow the axle to pivot, then I'd be more apt to also run a rear sway bar.

__________________
-Jason
1969 Pontiac Firebird