Sway Bars

Guys, little food for thought here...Purely theoretical (and I'm no expert, here). If Chevy installed rear bars only on big block cars, could that be because these cars have a tendency to plow (understeer)? Along comes my lightweight with it's 3/4" rear bar and it oversteers like it's going out of style. Opinions, anyone?

JR

Yes, that is part of the reason. The rear sway bar makes the rear turn out more, thus less understeer, less plowing.

Thats right guys, thats why the factory put the 7/16" rear bar on my small block car, VB Products pushes 3/4"bars for small block cars but I think thats a little big unless your running steam roller tires or a lot of weight on the rear wheels which isn't to often on these cars unless your racing

|UPDATED|7/22/2004 1:28:16 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

here is a page listing ways to compensate for both under and oversteering

http://rogerkrausracing.com/overundr.html

Great page Ben, just finished printing it

All good info. But as it stated these almost always work, but the key is almost. 7 of 8 may work for you, but not 8. It depends on what you have now, and the conditions the car is driven under.

But it's a great link. Good information and accurate. Good research Ben.

kstyer said: All good info. But as it stated these almost always work, but the key is almost. 7 of 8 may work for you, but not 8. It depends on what you have now, and the conditions the car is driven under. But it's a great link. Good information and accurate. Good research Ben.

I was looking this up as my curiousity got the best of me again. Now I feel compelled to find a good "test" track around here and modify things until I get a balance.

of course the best advice the article gives is

The best rule is to change only one thing at a time and keep notes.

btw... from the reading ive done on this (suspension wasnt never high on my list... dont need steering in the 1/4) it seems that the moderation is the best advise.

if you use a huge front or rear sway bar it can cause extremes in your steering. I do still think a rear sway bar is good if for nothing other than inhibiting body roll. This is yet another case where bigger isnt always better (at least thats what I keep telling my wife)..



|UPDATED|7/22/2004 9:22:00 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

One change at a time is always best. But the kicker is sometimes you must change two things a once to see what happens. Sway bars can be an example. If you change only one bar, it won't give you the same effect as changing two bars. Only one may create an unwanted effect, but both could be just what you're looking for.

It does get dicey. Sometimes a bit of research helps a lot before making any changes.

If you make one change and don't get what you want, try another change before you go backwards, and you may get what you want. Then again it might suck.