Does anyone have a picture of the complete rear axle of a 9 bolt. I had my 9 bolt rebuilt with 3 series pinion, ring gears etc (Australia had a few available). However I must have tossed my rear sway bar and brackets. So I ordered a UMI rear sway bar and UMI rear sway bar u-bolt, bracket etc. when I tried installing it, the sway bar will not sit centered, if I tried to center it, the drivers side starts to hit the mount were the shocks is attached. Online shows people who have the same setup centered, although I think they have a 10 bolt rear end. Anyway any help would be great. Thank you

 

Is your rear centered in the car with a adjustable panhardbar?
the endlinks should be straight up and down when viewed from the rear. The swaybar will move left to right under normal driving. So don't worry about centering it 100%

 

Yah I have an adjustable pan hand bar. I saw another video with a guy who had one and it looked like their sway bar sat off to the right side more also. I’m not sure

 

Here are a couple of photos of the stock sway bar on a 9-bolt rear. Your panhard bar may need to be adjusted to center the rear end.

 

Thank you I appreciate it. It shows the rear sway bar to the right and not centered under the pumpkin. I was trying to center it, like others in some videos. Hope you have a good day.

 

Yes, it's not quite centered. I have not yet adjusted the panhard bar, will do that once the car is done and at full weight. Also, the axle does move left/right as the suspension moves up/down because the panhard bar causes it to move in an arc, but the sway bar will stay centered on the car and move left/right within the sway bar to axle mount bushings.

 

Do you have a factory rear seat bar or aftermarket

 

Stock sway bar with poly bushings.

 

I think I’m going get one of classic industries. I don’t really care for the UMI. To bulky and the sway brackets have jagged teeth to bite in the axle as you tighten it down. I really don’t like it. My restoration is more stock with a few upgrades to suspension.

 

You're going to need to use stock U-bolts and brackets that clamp to the axle housing. There's a notch in the bracket that fits over a rectangular "key" that's welded to the bottom of the axle tube. It keeps the whole assembly from rotating on the axle tube. The bushing and metal retainer strap around the bushing can be aftermarket.

Aftermarket sway bar is fine, just make sure you you've done your research on sizing. Bigger isn't necessarily better and the relationship between front and rear sizing can really change the handling dynamics of the car. Ex. bigger rear bar without changing front will cause the car to want to oversteer. The stock IROC front and rear sway bars are already pretty big and they are set up for a little bit of understeer (safer). Unless you have a particular reason to change them because the car is doing something or not doing something you want it to do, I would leave them stock. Poly bushings instead of squishy rubber on a stock sway bar do make a pretty big difference in tightening up the feel.

 

Yah and that’s was my problem with the UMIs, they wouldn’t slot into the metal tab like the old version. Sometimes as you said, bigger doesn’t always mean better. I was trying to upgrade the entire suspension. It was shot from sitting in my parents bard for almost 27 years. I have a factory bracket coming in and sway bar, so when it comes in, I’ll see if the bracket will work with the UMI bar. If it doesn’t I’ll just return it back.