Front sway bar question

Pritchard · 10-08-2010, 05:39 PM

I have a '74 2.0 L with front and rear sway bars. I was checking the front bearings for a squeal/roar the other day and found nothing unusual. The only weird thing that happened was that there was a loud clunk when I pushed sideways really hard on the tire while the car was up in the air. After putting everything back together, the car which used to have almost no body sway when turning the steering wheel rapidly from side to side going down the road, now feels as though it is going to flip over sideways. The front end really rolls from side to side now. There is also a new vibration in the steering wheel when I get up to highway speeds. I have taken everything in the wheel wells back off and have found nothing missing or damaged. The front struts were shot so I replaced the front strut inserts and achieved no improvement on the sway issue.
I have checked the steering rack for abnormalities, the tie rods and ends, the sway bar end links and bushings, the torsion bars and everything seems OK. I have pushed up and down on the sway bar ends and there seems to be adequate resistance, but I don't know if just pushing on them by hand should even move them. I haven't looked under the tank yet to see if the sway bar is OK. I'm hoping to avoid that if at all possible.What do you guys think? What am I missing here?

larrym · larrym's Garage

according to the racer books - a rear bar induces oversteer which is probably what you may be describing - which might suggest the front bar is "disconnected" or ineffective - all of a sudden per your account - you can check the mounting pads in the inner fender wall on the outside

- look for cracks or evidence they have come loose - 3 bolts- triangular pad - in my sixer they were cracked - that was 20 yrs ago at an SCCA race

- so i converted to a 911 crossmember with underslung sway bar

but it is hard to believe this would happen as suddenly as your experience suggests, especially right after a repair, so I'd be looking for other evidence that the bar was disconnected or broken