Are your vents on the top or bottom? The holes should be near the endlink and pointing either up or down. Please vote if you can take a minute and look on your car. If you've got a picture of a bar with the vents on one side or the other, might use that digital camera that's been sitting for a while .

 

the bar on my old 83 was facing the sky, (bar was a 36mm from a ws6) but all the same, the holes were facing up

 

I looked at one on a 85 T/A at the junk yard the other day....... the holes were pointing up.

 

mine were facing down. i assume the bar had never been touched since all the bushing were rotted

 

i don't think it matters, but since it is a "vent hole" i'd do it facing down so if any water got inside it wouldn't pool and rot the bar

 

I'm thinking that the only purpose of the holes was for the manufacturing process. The might have been used to vent the bar during heat treating or some other process after the ends were closed. I don't thing they are there to vent water...

 

If that's true then it's interesting that they're always up or down, instead of in some arbitrary position.

 

Or they could be used to align the bar for the bending and other manufacturing process. I really have no clue just speculation.

Maybe the bars were made by different outsourcing companies or different plants

 

There's a good question. List what plant your car came from, too.

 

I doubt swaybars were made on site at the assembly plant.

 

But they have been made for specific plants. Just a thought.

 

I doubt they're drain holes but what really confuses me is why they left them open to rot from the inside out. After production they should have used some rust preventative inside, some inert gas like nitrogen and then sealed it off. That would have been ideal... but we got GM... the penny pinchers of the automotive world

 

Yeah i think it's a little beyond GM to go that far!

mine pointed upwards, it was an 85 Z, from van nuys.

 

Actually we need to know if the bars are 34 or 36 mm. Mines a 36 with holes down.

 

36mm up

 

36 down

 

34 down

 

Mine's a 36 down. Oddly, I sold several set of those at one time. All the holes were down.

JamesC

 

One of these days I'll get some time to check my inventory and report the results for the 34mm & 36mm bars in stock. Yes I've seen both up and down oriented holes.

Lon

 

Look at the ends of the bar to see if the endlink-ends were welded to the hollow tube.

If so, then they are vents holes to prevent the inside air from blowing out the weld when the weld is still liquid. It's a std practice when welding a closed pipe to leave a hole for that purpose. Closing off the hole (after the welding) to prevent moisture/water ingression would be a good idea but apparently no one here has ever done it. And if it didn't affect the function of the sway bar (interference of any kind, and symmetric bar in an up/down sense), then mounting the bar with the holes facing the ground is probably preferred for reasons that should be obvious (they drain). FWIW.

 

The ends aren't welded, just stamped IIRC.

 

Yep, it's a hollow tube that is bend and the ends are crushed to form the endlink.

 

Back from the dead... but just re-read this old post and if they were vent holes for welding... why would there need to be 2 holes made? One would have sufficed if the tube is in fact hollow the whole way through.
I still have no idea why they are on the tubes if only to indicate at a glance that the bar is infact hollow? Maybe that was an indicator for the dealer and repair similar to the tag on the rear cover about the posi. I mean it isn't as obvious but it is noticable and 2mm on bushing size doesn't sound like much but it makes it HARD to put the brackets back on if you're using the smaller 34mm bushing!

 

I've had 2 36mm bars that were facing up, 3 36mm bars that were facing down, and 4 34mm bars that were facing down.

 

A sticker or stamped part number would be a more cost-effective marking than a drilled hole.

 

I am thinking they used the vent holes to allow the welding process to work correctly.

 

Pretty sure mine are down, hollow 36. I'll double check.

Where the crap you get that many bars?

 

Unfortunatly, none of the bars I have/had had the tag with the part number still attached.

I have cleaned out a couple junkyards. I figure rather then let them possibly get crushed, I'll pull them out and sell to other TGO members. However, I probably won't be getting more any time soon since the local junkyards don't have any of the desirable bars any more. There are still plenty of rear bars that can be grabbed, but those can wait until spring because I don't want to have to go out in the snow atm.

Mike

 

Brave the snow and find me a 21mm rear. I shall pay you upon graduation lol.
You're lucky, our junk yards have about 3 cars between them.

 

Maybe when the snow melts a little. There is about 6" of snow on the ground right now with more coming in the next couple days, but I might have a 21mm rear bar in the garage.

I know I'm lucky. There are 21 thirdgens and 8 fourth gens at a single junkyard and it is only about 5 miles from my house. Score!!

Mike

 

I don't think there's any welding anywhere on the bar.

 

I was just messing with you. I'd like to have a 21mm to tune with, but I won't be able to buy one for some time. I wish I had that many f-bodies near me. Come summer, I may send you a laundry list of things lol.

 

The holes are to help control condensation.