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Canadian Poncho Homepage -> Canadian Poncho -> 1970 + Canadian Pontiac Chassis Forum -> Sway Bar makes a difference....
Post Info TOPIC: Sway Bar makes a difference....
73SC


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Sway Bar makes a difference....
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Here is a shot of the sway bar I put on my car. I got it from a buddy in Grafton who also has a 75 GT and upgraded his to a Trans Am piece that is thicker but identical otherwise. In 73 GTO's had sway bar's standard and the only other way you could get one was to order 15" wheels and the handling package. My car still has original 14" Rally wheels so really it never would have had a sway bar. All I know is that bar really tightened up it's cornering abilities.



-- Edited by 73SC at 19:46, 2008-03-20

-- Edited by 73SC at 12:16, 2008-03-21

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Ray White, Toronto ON

Formerly - The one and only 1973 LeMans 454 "Astro-Jet"

Built March 9, 1973 - Oshawa ON

1993 Corvette Convertible LT 1

Built January 10, 1993 - Bowling Green Kentucky 

 
cupedition


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Now go and put some real rubber on it ! Need some 15" rallies LOL

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73SC


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Got 'em in the shed, from a 76 Firebird I had.

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Ray White, Toronto ON

Formerly - The one and only 1973 LeMans 454 "Astro-Jet"

Built March 9, 1973 - Oshawa ON

1993 Corvette Convertible LT 1

Built January 10, 1993 - Bowling Green Kentucky 

 
427carl


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My Ventura II has a larger front, and a added rear bar, and the front is dropped down 2 inches, and it handles as well, as any of the corvettes, I ever had...              It was a bonus, that came with the car                         Someone, spent a lot of money, getting it to handle... biggrin    I have a new rear sway bar for the 66 as well...

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2drpost


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installed the rear bar on the bel air this past spring...it made a very noticeable difference. smile just need to cure the #&#@!%$ wheel hop. furious

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loud


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i put new upper and lower control bars and a sway bar in the rear no wheel up.wink

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427carl


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Maybe, just try, reducing the distance, of the carb opening device, from the lowest level of the floor.. or try adjusting ,the amount of pressure, on the forward motion controller, until the vehicle has left, the start, of the last known location..  viola  no wheel hop..

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4SPEED427


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69 belair wrote:

installed the rear bar on the bel air this past spring...it made a very noticeable difference. smile just need to cure the #&#@!%$ wheel hop. furious


I'm surprised you have a wheel hop problem. My 66 Grande Parisienne with the 4 speed never had a hop problem. At the same time, I owned a 66 327 4 speed Nova that I couldn't launch at all because it would jump out of gear it hopped so bad. The big car would launch beautiful regardless of ground surface (cement, blacktop, whatever). Granted it would spin quite a bit but never a sign of hop. Do you have a pretty sticky tire? I never tried slicks or anything.

 



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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles 

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pontorquer


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 My old GTO didn't have a swaybar and the rear of the car would past me sometimes when I would floor it around the corners ( scary as hell ! ) I installed one and it cured the problem, like you said, what a difference, I purchased one for my 72 Lemans as well.

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BillyGoat73


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I added '73 GA sway bars on my '73 Desert Sand LSC almost 30 years ago. I had to drill out the lower rear control arms to bolt the mounting block in for the rear sway bar. I will have to do the same thing for my "new" LeMans GT as it only has a front bar.

Was the Firebird rear sway bar mounting any different on the LeMans? Did you have to drill out the lower control arms?



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'73 Oshawa Built LSC GT
'73 400 4-spd GTO
2010-08-01181731-1.jpg
73SC


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BillyGoat73 wrote:

 

I added '73 GA sway bars on my '73 Desert Sand LSC almost 30 years ago. I had to drill out the lower rear control arms to bolt the mounting block in for the rear sway bar. I will have to do the same thing for my "new" LeMans GT as it only has a front bar.

I don't recall any drilling, it was a straight bolt in for me, of course the sway bar came from a Canadian built GT transferred to another Canadian built car. Mike in Grafton may know more cupedition is his user ID I think. You could PM him.


-- Edited by 73SC on Sunday 19th of April 2009 07:56:14 PM

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Ray White, Toronto ON

Formerly - The one and only 1973 LeMans 454 "Astro-Jet"

Built March 9, 1973 - Oshawa ON

1993 Corvette Convertible LT 1

Built January 10, 1993 - Bowling Green Kentucky 

 
eeluddy


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73SC wrote:

Got 'em in the shed, from a 76 Firebird I had.

Ralley II's.One of my all time favorites.
I think your car would look good with 16 x 8 GTA rims also with some 245/60-16 Michelins. 73-77's have a nice big wheel well.

 



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CDNROUNDPORT


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Ray what year F-body is that sway bar off?

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73SC


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I think I may have people confused. cupedition gave me the rear sway bar off his 75 LeMans GT Canada Cup car and I put that on my LeMans, bolted right in.

cupedition  used an F body front sway bar on his LeMans and a larger diameter rear bar on his Lemans. He also has a nice adjustable rear control arm set up from the G body I believe.

Ian, Why not PM Mike and get the details from him, cupedition on here and 75CanCup on PY.

 



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Ray White, Toronto ON

Formerly - The one and only 1973 LeMans 454 "Astro-Jet"

Built March 9, 1973 - Oshawa ON

1993 Corvette Convertible LT 1

Built January 10, 1993 - Bowling Green Kentucky 

 
cupedition


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Billygoat , You must have " rare " LCA s i have never seen any from the factory without the swaybar mounting holes ..... interesting

Yes i have a larger F body ( 78 i think ) front bar If you need a larger rear bar look at the 94 /96 GM B bodies Its a bolt in .
mike.

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BillyGoat73


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Here are a couple shots of my lower control arms. The rear sway bar on the GTO bolts to a "C" channel that fits up into the control arm and is bolted through the arm.

Note the LeMans GT arm without the sway bar. There are no holes for this "C" channel. Like I said, I had to drill out my Desert Sand LeMans arms many years ago to add the sway bar. It looks like I have to do the same with this LeMans.



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'73 Oshawa Built LSC GT
'73 400 4-spd GTO
2010-08-01181731-1.jpg
73SC


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Bill, I'll crawl under my car maybe on the weekend and see what I have. I did not drill anything as far as I remember when I got the sway bar from Mike. My set up looks pretty much like what you show for your GTO going from memory. I remember bolting it in and test driving it in about 20 minutes. Mike gave me the bar and the C Channel and since I had no photo or other car for comparison I just bolted it up as I thought it should be.  

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Ray White, Toronto ON

Formerly - The one and only 1973 LeMans 454 "Astro-Jet"

Built March 9, 1973 - Oshawa ON

1993 Corvette Convertible LT 1

Built January 10, 1993 - Bowling Green Kentucky 

 
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BillyGoat73


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Installed the rear sway bar on the LeMans GT yesterday and took a good portion of the day doing it. I removed the lower control arms, matched up measurements I took on the GTO lower arms, drilled them out on the drill press, test fit the holes with the sway bar, made some minor hole adjustments with a file, cleaned up the sway bar, and put everything back together.

Now the car has some serious handling capabilities with the big front & rear bars.




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'73 Oshawa Built LSC GT
'73 400 4-spd GTO
2010-08-01181731-1.jpg
73SC


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Sounds greats Billy, love the new avatar. Now I realize I never took my photo, anyway I did mine early one Saturday morning, took me about 20 minutes, the hardest part was holding the sway bar up by myself. I am really curious why mine was a bolt in. Maybe I did something wrong confuse

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Ray White, Toronto ON

Formerly - The one and only 1973 LeMans 454 "Astro-Jet"

Built March 9, 1973 - Oshawa ON

1993 Corvette Convertible LT 1

Built January 10, 1993 - Bowling Green Kentucky 

 
BillyGoat73


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Ray,

I'm still planning to bring the car to HMP Show in Hamilton in June. If you're there, we can compare notes.

Bill

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'73 Oshawa Built LSC GT
'73 400 4-spd GTO
2010-08-01181731-1.jpg
87 player bird


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Hey 69 Belair, depending on the suspension on your car( coil or leaf spring) Add a set of ladder bars, or track bars, and that should fix it. Had to put ladder bars on my 55 belair to stop it, as I blew 2 rear ends before I got around to doing that.biggrin

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mfleury


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i just replaced my sway bar along with rear control arms

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