74 911 front sway bar size?
 

I'm trying to back date my 74 911 to its original front sway bar only setup and need to find out what size they used. The 22mm Carrera bar I'm using now is too stiff so how much smaller was the original bar?

Cheers,

Joe

Joe,

From my old papyrus based 74' Spare Parts Catalogue:

The standard front sway bar was a 16mm. Also, as an option on the 911/911S and standard on the Carrera USA and Carrera 2.7 (MFI) was a 20mm front sway bar.

The rear 18mm sway bar was standard on the Carreras and optional on the 911/911S.

The front and rear torsion bars were the same for all models.

My research shows a 16mm front bar as standard for the basic 911 with no sway bar for the rear (20mm front and 18mm rear could be optioned however).

Joe,
I think I've got one in the garage. PM me if you're interested. I'll check.

Sherwood

Silly me. I could have found out what I needed to know if I only checked here first:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/shopcart/911M/POR_911M_SUSshk_pg6.htm#item22

Looks like I'll need to replace all my 22mm bushings with 16mm ones, assuming I can find a 16mm bar.

Joe

If you have the under car style (Which you must as it is same type as Carrera you are using now)You can use a front from any thing before 1986 The SC used the 20 mm front. The matching rear is an 18. The rear droplink style changed in 1978 making a 78 or older rear a boltin

I understand that. But the idea is to reduce the bar size as much as possible because I noticed that it handled much better when one of my sway bar mounts was broken so softer seems the way to go.

I'm even considering the idea of replacing my front torsion bars with something softer if that's possible. Are 914 front torsion bars smaller?

Joe

914 torsion bars have a different spline count and won,t interchange. If the 22 swaybar is too stiff the 20/18 pair would be my recommendation.

Since I won't be using a rear sway bar, I might go for the 20mm bar if I cannot find a 16mm bar.

As far as softer t-bars are concerned, my research tells me that the 65-68 911 used 18mm front t-bars and in 69 they went to 18.8mm which is what I have now.

Einmalig in Huntington Beach, CA should have the 16mm bar you're looking for. They're a Porsche recycler and have pretty much everything ever produced. I've bought quite a few items from them in the past. They can be a bit pricey sometimes, but if you want it, they probably have it.
http://einmalig.com/

As for going with a smaller t-bar than Porsche put in it, I think that's a bad idea. Why would you regress something that Porsche's engineer's felt was a needed progression of the type? Porsche obviously put a lot of thought and research into improving the breed over the years, so if Porsche felt they needed to increase the size of the t-bar, I'm sure it was warranted.

For the same reason we go to bigger aftermarket bars and dial in lots of negative camber, in the intrest of improving something that we believe has room for improvement.

Sometimes going the opposite direction can be an improvement depending on your needs.

I understand what you are saying and it is your car after all, so to each his own.