My car's a 94 formula firebird. I ordered a ES bushing kit and am in the middle of putting them all in and the rear sway bar bushings are for a 19mm sway bar. They were too big, when I measured mine with the supplied tape measure it showed mine was 17mm, what's the deal here?

 

The 17mm rear swaybar was used on the V6 cars. I don't know why it would be on a Formula, though.

 

My car had a V6 in it last year, I didn't change the rear sway bar on it. Thought they were the same.
Thanks for the help

 

Did you change the springs and shocks to V8? If not, the stock V8 parts (incl the rear way bar) are avaiable very cheap from SLP as takeoffs from their SS/Firehawk conversions.

 

I did change over the springs and shocks and have put in some new springs and some take off shocks a couple days ago along with a poly bushing kit, probably some new lcas with spherical ends soon as well to prevent the binding.
I left on the stock v6 sway bar on the rear and will probably get the V8 later on. I do have 315s on the rear though so I imagine it's less of an issue than if I had the normal 275s.
Maybe not, I don't know...any input?

 

If anything 315's should work better with the 19mm bar than 275's would. A little more grip back there lets you run a little more rear roll rate.

Norm



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1979 Malibu, 355, 5 speed, cornering tweaks, some other stuff
2001 20th Anniversary Maxima, 5 speed

 

Maybe I misunderstood the concept here, but I believed that the bigger sway bar was not what you wanted on the back with the 315s because it would not let the suspension do its job as well since there was the extra tire there. Which is why many people don't go with the 21 mm in the rear, it's too big with the 315s, I still figure on giving the 19mm one a try soon, but I want to make sure I understand the concept fully here before I go out trying different sway bars.
Maybe if I don't get a good couple of awnsers I'll start a thread asking specifically on the results of different sway bars with 315s.
If I'm wrong, please let me know, I'd rather know the concept than just think I do.

 

my comment: i have stock sways with polyurathane bushings, 17 by 11 315's, lowered 1.7 in rear. my rear end is planted to the ground. i only drove it two months but in that time period i never lost my rear end.

 

V6 cars are somewhat lighter than the V8 cars, and the bulk of the weight difference is up front. So the V6 cars will inherently understeer a little less than their V8 counterparts. Part of the easiest way to keep the understeer similar for both is to tinker with the rear bar size. Smaller on the V6 cars to help make them "push" a little more to offset the effect of weight distribution. Lighter total weight means that roll angles remain similar.

FWIW, I thought it was 25mm that was too big (even when matched with a 35mm front bar), not 21mm.

Norm

[This message has been edited by Norm Peterson (edited June 25, 2002).]

 

So are you guys saying I should go ahead with a 21 for the back instead of just finding a 19 laying around somewhere?
I can undestand less bar in the back to make up for the wieght difference in the front.
Was it the 25mm rear that was too much?