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Anton Member
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Hi, I am intending to install a front sway bar (ADDCO) on my JH. Is there anyone who has some detailed information or pictures to guide me? Is installing complicated and is there a need to make some technical adjustments? All information on this subject is really welcome !! Looking forward to receive your advice. Anton |
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Brett Gibson JH5 20497 Member
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Get them off Delta they give you a detailed instruction guide and I believe they are Addco, one tip. have the front wheels on a ramp to keep the suspension compressed at normal car weight while installing, another. make sure the wishbone suspension arms have the mounting brackets facing the rear, (they sometimes come from the factory facing forward) Brett |
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carl.bedlington Member
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Hi, I have seen that an Addco 101 Front Anti Sway Bar kit is currently listed on eBay for $141. My question are; is this the best sway bar to buy, is this the same kit that Delta sells and is this the best one to buy? I have gone though all the past posts and have seen that some sway bars are 7/8" this one is bigger at 1 1/8". I would love to hear some feed back from someone who has fitted one of these front sway bars. Cheers Carl |
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rossjfox Member
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Anton, I fitted the Addco front sway bar. (As well as the rear. These must be done in pairs or be prepared for some, shall we say, "entertaining" handling.) Fitting the front bar is not a challenge as long as the factory put your lower A-arms on right way around. There are tabs on the lower a-arms where the sway bar connects. These tabs need to be pointed towards the rear of the car. On many cars, the factory assembled them with the lower A-arms switched left to right and thus the tabs point to the front of the car. If the A-arms are correct, than you can just bolt the front bar on and drill 4 holes in the frame rails for the brackets. If the A-arm tabs are pointing in the wrong direction, than the A-arms need to be switched left to right. A doable job, but much more work than just installing the sway bar. Ross |
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carl.bedlington Member
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Hi Ross, Thanks for your prompt reply and good advice, I will check the orientation of the A-arms out when I do the job as I will be stripping the suspension to fit a full set of super pro bushes and new Bilstein Shocks. I'm intrigued by your comment, 'These must be done in pairs or be prepared for some, shall we say, "entertaining" handling' From what I have read in previous posts it is OK just to fit the front sway bar and a worthwhile handling upgrade? Cheers Carl |
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jcdean Member
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My current JH has front and rear bars installed w/SPAX shocks all around set to a very firm ride. It corners very flat with hardly any roll. It begs for better tires, though. My previous JH had the normal suspension and difference is extremely easy to feel. |
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Mike Aubuchon Member
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My sway bar kit from Delta included two L shaped brackets. Instead of reversing the A-arms, I welded the brackets to the the back side of the arms. Everything fit and bolted up with no problems. Nice upgrade. Took the roll out and keeps the car flat in the turns. I have never heard of installing a front or rear sway bar without doing both. Don't get crazy. Keep the rubber on the road. Mike JH 19032 |
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Jensen Healey Super Moderator 
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Delta sway bars are great! I see no reason to go with a stiffer bar for street use. Tuning the suspension is somewhat complex and I'm no expert. Your springs, shocks, and tires all play into the equation. Google it up. I use stock springs, Delta sway bars, 205-60/ 13 tires on stock rims, old school non-gas Konis in the front and gas Konis in the rear. It suits me for street use. FWIW: The KYB gas shocks have about 40 lbs of lift and raise the front of the car about 3/8". There is 1" of travel until I'm on the bump stops so lowering the car is not an option. Kurt |
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Dakota123 Member
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As far as I've always known it's fine to install just a front bar with no rear. Many cars come so configured. My JH has just the front installed at present; made a huge difference in handling over no bar. I have a rear bar and will probably install it once I tackle other, more pressing issues. (But yeah, a rear with no front would not be good.) Adding the rear bar to the package should decrease understeer, although the JH is pretty balanced to begin with. Plenty of people prefer a little understeer as a guide as to how hard the tires are being worked. The rear bar is straight-forward to install; you can always install it and see which suits you better, with or without. Mike |
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Jensen Healey Super Moderator
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Installing a front sway bar alone will cause understeer. While understeer is safer for the average driver than oversteer it is not optimal for handling. To counter this effect you can soften the front shocks and stiffen the rear shocks, reduce air pressure on the front tires and increase pressure in the rear, install heavier springs in the rear, etc. etc. Unless you want to read a few books on sports car suspension tuning and do a lot of testing I would recommend installing both bars at the same time, and installing new springs, shocks, wheels, or tires in matched sets. Kurt |
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carl.bedlington Member
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Thanks for your 5 cents worth Dakota123, I’m sure Greg Fletcher mentioned to me that it was OK to fit a front sway bar by itself as the Jenson GT was fitted with only a front sway bar as standard. From all the other comments I’ve read here I’m now thinking that maybe I should purchase both at the same time as I would be saving on postage. Thanks to all for your input. Cheers, confused downunder |
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rossjfox Member
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Kurt's explination of the handling issues with installation of only a front bar is accurate and what I was driving at. The key here is to keep the car balanced. There is little reason not to install the rear bar if you're doing the front. Of the two, the rear is the easier to install given the front A-arm issues. Good luck... Ross |
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philharmonic Member
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What does the rear Sway bar do? I mean the rear suspention is not independent and there can't be much sway or roll with the rear wheels connected through the third member; so why install a rear sway bar??? |
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Jensen Healey Super Moderator
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I may seem that way at first glance but the bar works as advertised. |
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Dakota123 Member
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The roll in cornering comes about from the springs-- the rear axle is not rigidly connected to the frame. The anti-roll bar ties one side to the other more rigidly. The designed-in flexibility of the bar itself (and, to a small extent, its bushings) limit the effect, as the bar is a spring in it's own right. One-wheel bumps become firmer as a result of this added spring in the system. Everything is a trade-off... Last edited on 05-30-2011 09:32 pm by Dakota123 |
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philharmonic Member
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When I look at the front sway bar it makes a lot of sense; there is a lot of physics in every front suspension component and keeping them all straight is clearly a handling advantage. But when I look at the rear sway bar as connected to the the rear spring directly under the axle that is completely ridged and does not connect to the any other part of the car what good can it possibly do? Sorry for my confusion but it just seems to be bolted on in such a way that it has absolutely no effect at all on the rear suspension. |
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Dakota123 Member
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What makes it work is the short bit that kicks the cross bar to the rear a few inches from the mounting point. That makes the assembly a torsion bar; the bar twists under cornering load or one-wheel bump. (Sorry for using the word 'rigid' earlier. That probably didn't help the mental picture.) |
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philharmonic Member
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Thank for the explanation I get it. |
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atgparker Member 
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TaDa Attachment: WP_000517.jpg (Downloaded 318 times) |
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Art DeKneef Member
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atgparker, I noticed in your picture that the sway bar is attached above the tabs instead of underneath. All the other cars I have seen equipped with a front sway bar had it mounted below the tabs. What's the reasoning you use to mount it on top like you did? Just curious. |
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atgparker Member
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This angle allows the bushing stack to match the angle of the A-arm's tabs which come on the OEM suspension's lower arms . What is more with the spacer I used it clears the strut bar in this location and the cross bar is the only low point that will hit things should one miss judge the clearence. It seemed this was the best approach to get the bushing stack snug and have all the washers and spacers work without binding when you cycle the suspension. Unless you use the Addco "L" bracket I cannot see how to use the bolt and spacer they supply with the OEM tab. 205/60-R13's on OEM rims do rub on the bar at full lock with this arrangement. But the tire and smooth shape of the bar touch and do not really pose a problem. |
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roland11a Member
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Strange looking at these after market Anti Roll bar setups! I've got a genuine one I presume from a GT or some early Vauxhall Magnum. This bar fits completley to the front sub frame and is mounted underneath the lower suspension arms. I would have thought it a bad idea to mount an anti roll bar part onto the subframe and part onto the body as the subframe is mounted on flexable rubber bushes . So allowing a sertain amount of movement between the two. Still if it works well job done. |
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atgparker Member
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I was wondering about those other holes in the sub frame as they looked like they could harbor a sway bar. The bushing which fixes the rear of the sub frame to the unibody-chassis is perhaps the best candidate on the entire car to replace with a polyurethane replacement. Also the fasteners in my car, 11602 came with were undersized fasteners bolting this assembly together. So I replaced the sleeve and increased the fastener to a nice big 1/2-13UNC grade 8 bolt with a Nylock so that you don't have to torque the bolt to spec as you will crush the sleeve. The hole in the body will take the 1/2" bolt with out any drilling so I can only guess the smaller bolt was either a PO putting it there or JH choosing it for ease of assembly. You may need a spud wrench to get the holes in the frame and sub frame to align when you drive the bolt through. This might help with your sub frame mounted sway bar's response being quickened a bit if its still rubber and the bolts are the smaller ones. In actuality the mounting of the sway bar to the unibody and the A-arms is mechanically a better means to spread the anti-roll loading into the chassis as it takes the sub frame to body flex out of the equation. Having said that the funky U bolts are starting to tare the sheet metal in the frame rail so I may have to plate the frame rail with some strip and perhaps weld in some blind nuts to secure the bracket for the bars OD. |
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roland11a Member
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When I put my front crossmember back together I'll post a photo for interest sake. All off the car at the moment undergoing a rebuild . Big day tomorrow as the body is back from spraying. |
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roland11a Member
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/99803698@N07/sets/72157638139249415/ As promised. The genuine part anti roll bar fitted. Last edited on 11-28-2013 09:44 am by roland11a |
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Art DeKneef Member
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Tried to view picture but the page redirected to Yahoo and wanted me to log in. No go. |
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roland11a Member
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Try These Just got to attach the drop link once the springs are compressed [     |
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Jensen Healey Super Moderator
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That looks really odd compared to the chassis mount bars. |
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atgparker Member
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Yup it sure does. But the Addco chassis mounted bars end up having a longer effective arm as they are rear set by quite a bit from the OEM mounts shown above. So that makes the bar's relative stiffness less for a given diameter being the same with these two arrangements. It's no wonder that Huffaker Engineering did something completely different for the sway bar when they raced this car. When I auto crossed mine a few weeks ago with the Addco bars in place I thought I was going to clean house. But the Koni's were wide open so there was no rebound damping resistance and the cars excellent steering response made short work of the excessive body roll but the transitions made nailing the desired route impossible. I just hope the Koni's on the front are as mal adjusted as were the rear on 11602. |
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Frank Schwartz Member
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I'm stuck here with a ADDCO 101 sway bar that doesn't seem to want to fit. The tabs on the suspension where it is supposed to bolt on front is so close to the steering arm assembly that it is almost impossible to mount the sway bar... the steering rods prevent easy installation. I have two brackets included with the kit but no instructions or any indication of how they are to be used. I've read the instructions and also the previous posts here...and am still very confused...plus I cannot weld..(pacemaker will go crazy). Any help?? Thanks, Frank |
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atgparker Member
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Frank, Get some longer bolts and some tubing to space the washers and bushings so that sway bar is above the truss rod that has the large bushing and washer stack which passes through the sub fame. Look at my cars setup the vin is 11602. The tabs on the lower suspension arm are well suited when the bar is set up this way, unless the suspension arms were swapped from left to right at some point in the cars history? |
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Frank Schwartz Member
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Well, it does appear, upon close inspection that the two arms are crossed. If removed and swapped over then the mounting points will be correct. How in the heck does this happen?? Or did some PO swap them..or did the factory do it??? Seems that these can be both ways...that is on a couple of the JH's I have checked they are placed wrong..and then on a complete front end we recently purchased in a lot for parts, the mounting point is to the rear and is correct...what a mess this is......... Frank |
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Tim Murphy Member 
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Frank, I had the same problem years ago. The very experience JH mechanic who swapped arms said it was common, the factory installed the arms randomly, some both mounting points front, some both back. It didn't matter too them because the stock JH did not have anti sway bars. |
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redracer Member
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Frank & all: the tabs for a sway bar should be pointed back. You have to drill a hole in the supporting "U" channel to put a "u" bolt through it. I don't recommend doing this as Parker's weld is much preferred if you MUST have one. On the race cars, the tabs are pointing forward for mounting across the radiator shroud, but we also did not have a fan, which would be in the way. A third option is to get a GT sway bar which mounts to the subframe itself, and not the "U" channel behind it. Having said all this, rear sway bar is MUCH preferred as the car had a tendency for understeering/plowing, for which a front swaybar would only increase the understeer. Over the years, the adjustable SPAX shocks with the rear setting 2 clicks/1/2 turn stiffer than the fronts, gave very good handling characteristics without any sway bars necessay. However, if you are trying to turn your car into a street racer, then you will need also expensive tires(tyres, for all you other blokes) to give you acceptable handling. |
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