i am thinking about replacing the front and rear sway bars on my 87 IROC. should i do this or just replace the worn bushing on the them w/ polyurethane ones?

i am replacing the rear control arms and panhard rod and have 4th gen WS6 springs to throw in at the sametime.

any suggestions?

 

Just replace the bushings and endlinks with new poly ones.

 

i was also thinking of just replacing the bushings in the sway bars and getting sub-frame connectors instead of the bars.

 

The bars you have are good enough - just replace the bushings.

The money would be better spent on SFCs.

Generally you just replace the bars if you have some specific goal in mind like to match a new suspension setup or you want to dial out some kind of handling issue.

Also, with sway bars, going bigger is not always better - they have to be matched to the springs/shocks and the rest of the suspension package.

 

i figured the money would be better spent on SFCs and new shocks/struts.

what kind of bushing should i go w/? the searches ive done have come up w/ energy suspension mostly. any others to consider or go w/?

what about changing the front control arms?

 

Energy Suspension is pretty common. Can't really go wrong with them.

Like people have mentioned with the sway bars, no real reason to replace the control arms. There's even less of a reason to change them since you can't use them to tune the suspension (as you can do changing sway bar diameters). Only if they are bent or damaged would I worry about it. But good bang for the buck would be to get some polyurethane bushings for them, too, but you'd have to get them pressed in.

Pat

 

what about adding a strut tower brace along w/ the rest?

 

An STB with OE-type bearing plates won't be as effective (because of the rubber and a bit of deflection) as an STB with an after market version, such as the one Spohn offers.

JamesC

 

STB is a GOOD deal. It is scary the difference it makes for fast corners. "Did you need stiffer rear springs oor someting??? Nah, that was just chassis flex." That was my before and after with my STB.

 

i think im going to replace the bushings w/ poly and get a set of SFC and a STB along w/ new rear control arms and a panhard bar.

anyone change out there torque arm? what were the results?

 

You won't feel any more difference with an after market torque arm than you will with LCA's or panhard (with new bushings anyway). You might take my philosophy, however, and swap them in 'cause you can.

JamesC

 

well ive had plans since i got the car to do lots of upgrades. only reason im doing the suspension now is b/c i had to change the fuel pump and had the rear end out of the car so i could get the tank out and figured id clean up the rear and change the fluid and what a better time to do the rear suspension than now.

so i want to make sure i dont waste any money and do it right the first time rather than live and learn and waste $$$$$$$$$.

so that is the reason for all the questions.