Sway bar recommendation

[Kern Dog]

Well....
If the Hotchkis video is correct and the 1 3/8" hollow bar is stiffer than the 1 1/4" solid, you may be okay. It really does come down to the balance of front and rear roll stiffness. Stiff leaf springs and a big rear bar on a car with stock torsion bars and front sway bar is a bad choice because it is highly likely to over steer heavily. Conversely, soft stock leafs, no rear bar BUT huge torsion bars and a giant front sway bar will understeer like a 60's Dodge truck on ice.
It took me awhile to find a combination that felt right but then...I did things my own way on the cheap. The front bar is a modified bar from an '84 Chevy truck. The rear is from an '83 Imperial. I have maybe $100 in both bars including the bushings!

[67tbird]

Well....
If the Hotchkis video is correct and the 1 3/8" hollow bar is stiffer than the 1 1/4" solid, you may be okay. It really does come down to the balance of front and rear roll stiffness. Stiff leaf springs and a big rear bar on a car with stock torsion bars and front sway bar is a bad choice because it is highly likely to over steer heavily. Conversely, soft stock leafs, no rear bar BUT huge torsion bars and a giant front sway bar will understeer like a 60's Dodge truck on ice.
It took me awhile to find a combination that felt right but then...I did things my own way on the cheap. The front bar is a modified bar from an '84 Chevy truck. The rear is from an '83 Imperial. I have maybe $100 in both bars including the bushings!

I was wondering if you had drilled and tapped the zerk fittings on your front bar Kern Dog? I was thinking of doing that and using my rotozip to create a trough to retain the grease.

[Kern Dog]

The bar isn't drillled but the bushing and bracket are. The bushing has a recess in it to allow the grease to spread around the bar.

[HPP]

Much like a tubular bar can be stiffer than a solid bar, the rear bar size is another area of "it depends" comes into play. Many of the after market, larger than stock, under axles bars are comparable applied rates to the OEM frame hung bar. The reason being in that overall width, mounting points, arm length, and where the arms mount all have an impact on the rate the bar applies to the tires. Which is another important point, even the rate of something may not be what the tire actually sees because of its mounting.

For proven handling combos, Hotchkis obviously has it dialed in. Similarly, Firm Feel has been building handling mopars for longer than some guys have been building mopars. A call and talk to them can get you dailed into exactly what your car needs, however, you have to TALK to them about it. It is not a catalog package you simply order.

The Mopar Chassis Book has much information on drag set ups. Their street and performance handling formulas are actually a bit soft by modern standards. The Mopar Oval Track  book does have much more information on range of suspension set ups for handling applications, once you cipher through it. It is not a book that simply says buy this and match it to that because it is built on percentages that can be achieved multiple ways depending on track, car, and weights.  You will need to know front/rear weight bias or better yet, four corner weights. But when it comes down to it, there is no more voodoo to building hot suspensions than their is to building hot engines. Its just not as widely understood.

[b5blue]

With fairly fresh M.P. R/T T-bars and rear springs the Addco rear sway bar showed to have an old Mopar Performance part number. That told me it had a M.P. stamp of approval and at such a low cost was a no brainer. Again if I was going to track race I'd build a Triumph TR not an Mopar R/T anyway.