Rear suspension alignment - does sway bar matter?
 

Hi guys - just wondering if it matters if you have a sway bar on the car if you are going to have an alignment done. I'm in the process of adding a rear bar to my '74 but just finished re-indexing her so she needs an alignment. Should I wait until the rear bar is on or just get the alignment done now and put the rear bar on after?

My hunch is to install everything but I thought I'd ask.

Thanks guys.

it won't affect alignment.

While the sway bar won't affect the alignment, you also need to be getting a corner balance since you indexed the tbars. Alignment and corner balance should be done together.

You didn't say what type sway bar you are putting in.

If it's adjustable, no problem. Do your align/balance and then put the sway in later.

If it's non-adjustable, you want it in there when you do the corner balance.

How do you corner balance the rear indexed suspension on a non adjustable spring plate?
I am assuming that this is incremental and could be done with ride height measurements when indexing the rear suspension with the proper weight in the front seat.
Where as the front is adjustable and can at advantage of the fine tuning with the scales.
Am I missing something?

Hey John - my newbie guess is that you are going to have to fool around with the bars if you don't have adjustable spring plates... (I put adjustable plates in mine when I did this since I was uprating the bars and the plates needs bushings anyway)

With non-adjustable spring plates, you can still do a full corner balance. It's just not as easy.

First you need to index the rear torsion bars right. With the non-adjustables, you really have to get the splines just right. This may require taking it apart and redoing, repeat until you get tired of cussing and say "close enough"

Second, use the front height adjusters to fine tune the corner balance.

You can corner balance the entire suspension using only the front adjusters. This is because when you change any one corner weight, it affects all four.


That said, having adjustable rear plates makes the job much easier and you will end up with a better result.

Thanks for the explanation Chuck. I plan to follow in Tom's foot steps as soon as I finish my gas tank project.

Hey Tom- I missed the detail that you put in adjustable plates.... but the explanation still works with my car that doesn't have them. Either way you are getting a lot more done on your car than mine!

Hi Chuck - it is a non-adjustable bar so looks like I want everything buttoned up before I get this done.

Thanks for the coaching.

I just reread this and realized I almost derailed your question- Sorry!

Let me be a bit clearer;; I'm talking about adjustable drop links.

Adjustable drop links allow one to dial out preload that affects corner balance.