Sway bar

[HELENT]

My car is a 1946 Ford Super Deluxe, 8.8 rear end, stock front end, all but dropped 3 inch magnum axle. 15in Radial tires. What difference do you think front and rear sway bar will do? Is it worth the effort?

[Old Henry]

Not sure what you mean by "sway bar". Could mean two different things. One is a stabilizer bar that hooks to each end of the front axle and threads through brackets on the frame. This is the bar that keeps the car from leaning or tipping. Gotta have that. Then there are two "tracking" bars on both the front and rear axles that keep the body centered over the axles. Gotta have them all unless you're totally replacing the transverse springs with something else.

[Fourdy]

I have them on front and rear. I have gotten many comments by those that follow me that my car takes corners extremely flat. It does handle great. I think they are worth the trouble to install.

Fourdy

[HELENT]

I know the kit drake has for the rear 8.8 will work on a 48 did not list one for the front has one for 38 to 40 think it will work

[Ol' Ron]

The 42-48 have the spring length so as to have the shackles vertical. THis will allow the body to "Sway back and forth over the axle. A track bar prevents that. The "Sway bar" is a torsion bar the attaches to each side of the front and rear axles to prevent the chassis from rolling over the axles by preloading the opposite side of the frame. This setup improve ride as well as the handling qualities of the car. I just went through this a few weeks back. My biggest problem was getting the right bushings for the track bar. I was given a part number for a set of shock bushing that worked just fine, Had to be narrowed a bit to fit the frame bracket.
Good luck

[HELENT]

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Got a buddy that has both bars will know tonight if works

[Bruce Lancaster]

Stock it already has a front anti-roll and both front and rear anti-sway. There really isn't any more to do to the sway bars, but if you go to stiffer anti-roll or add a rear anti-roll try to go up proportionally, as these are very neutral behaving cars stock and you don't want to get into adding under or over steer. Study the stock setup closely before making changes...they handle pretty well.
The mexican Rod race '46 Merc just went to re-rolled springs to lower, double shocks at all corners...did they do anything on roll? Double at front, onefront one added in back? Don't remember...it was written up in an ancient HRM.

[HELENT]

I do not have stock bars on more got parallel leaf springs on rear drop axle on front stock bar will not work

[Bruce Lancaster]

Parallel leafs always have some sway as they flex and bow sideways on hard cornering... I also suspect that they affect roll, with the high side spring unloading. There is a lot to be said for the stock setup, with all axle control handled by the tube and the sway bar, spring only serving as a spring.
What won't fit in front...sway bar, anti-roll bar, both? There should be some way to fix that. An anti-sway-panhard is pretty damn important on '42-8 Fords as spring setup was changed to require it...sway is built in if the control bar is removed.

[JWL]

I installed heavy front and rear anti-sway bars about 11 years ago on my 1940 sedan. The cornering and handling was vastly improved. About a year later I added a front panard (spelling?) bar and could not see any difference.

[HELENT]

Put front bar on for 40 fit like a glove drill four holes hour and half done rear bar fit great but did not have all the parts in kit

[HELENT]

Check this out

[HELENT]

Got both bars on friday nite drove car sat. Drove great happy now

[Ol' Ron]

Depending on your diffanation of sway /track bar The track bar is necessary on theHowever if you install longer shakels 42-48 suspensions dut to the length of the spring and the vertical shackles, you'll have to hadd one..