Hey everyone,
I have always thought my 3rd gen rode terrible. I figured it was the normal ride for anyone that has my suspension mods. That was till last week when I disconnected my 36mm front swaybar at the dragstrip and then drove home without reconnected it. What a difference. If I knew that the sway bar made that much of a difference, I would have went back to the stock 22mm one a long time ago. Is this normal for swaybars to make ride quality so much worse?

Mark

 

depends what you mean by ride quality

 

I put larger on my old RS, made it ride better actually.

Ive also not heard of a 22MM front bar. Or was that a typo and should have been 32mm?


fronts..
36mm,34solid,34hallow,32mm

rears
24mm,22mm,21mm,19mm. I think 4th gens had a smaller 18? that should fit.

 

weird!
throwing 89 IROC Z sways on my
made it handle much better!

 

That's interesting to hear, sway bars are one of the few suspension mods that doesn't have a dramatic effect on ride quality...

 

could be that because it is soo large, when the drivers side tire needs to react to a bump in the road, the passenger tire will go with it.. the sway bar ties the front 2 tires together so they move as one.. by disconnecting the swaybar, it lets the tires react individually..

assuming that you mean ride quality not during a turn..

 

It may ride better but I'm sure it handles more like an Electra 225 than a thirdgen.

 

You are exactly right, it reduces the independence of the front suspension......the thicker the bar, the more the two front corners work as one unit. Handling obviously changes dramatically though.......it is a trade-off.

 

I drove my old car for a few days with the front swaybar disconnected (broke an endlink), and the car didn't have a rear one. When making a u-turn, it would damn near scrape the outside rocker panel. It was pretty funny for the passenger though...

 

While you have it off take a good look at it and see if it is bent , also make sure the end-links were the correct lenght and not too long , look for contact scraches or dents on the strut .
Sounds like something is binding or contacting and interrupting normal suspension travel .

 

Well, I'm confused...

You had a 36, took it off, drove home, complained about the ride, then say you wanna go to a 22?

The 22 would be better than NOTHING, but why not go back to the 36?

I had a "well built" 78 Chevy Stepside truck. Let's just say, the "driveways" in Lake Charles, LA are NOT driveways....just shorter curbs. Bye-bye sway bar! No front sway bar SUCKS!

 

check your sway bar bushings.

if its while normal driving it could be your bushings are so bad that they are seized onto the swaybar.

so think of it as another set of front springs. the sway bar should be able to be moved with minimal force in an up and down motion when the endlinks are disconnected.

 

Or maybe one of the end links was tightened down too much (they should be tightened with the wheels on the ground, i.e., not on jackstands).

Pat

 

There's no doubt about it, a sway bar will make your ride more harsh. Single wheel bumps will be more harsh, 2 wheel bumps will not be.

I'm tempted to try super stiff springs (1200-1500 lb/in) and swap back in the 34 mm bar. But I wouldn't be doing it for a smooth ride

 

I picked up a set of std. Z28 bars... I am going to install them and see what happens. Thanks guys

 

just in case st makes 35 front and 25 rear for those reading. 4thgen rears are swapable but the fronts are not.

 

a sway bar will not ride much worse no matter the size of the bar if both front wheels hit say a speed bump at the same time. the bar is made to move up and down easily when both wheels move up or down the same time. but if you stagger the wheels over the same bump meaning one tire hits the bump before the other...the bar will make it alot stiffer the bigger it is.

 

Put a set of std. Z28 bars on and I am very pleased. Still handles GREAT but ride quality over bumpy roads is vastly improved.