What cars rear sway bar can be adapted to work on a Chevelle? I am heading to the yard this wekend in search of one for the Elky. Any suggestions?

AFAIK, only a '68-'72 A-body bar will fit. Good luck on that in the yards! Don't buy a G-body bar, it will NOT fit!!

i pretty sure the sway bars from the 73-77 a-bodies will work also but they have a curved shape around the center section area..

Actually 64-72 will interchange. Unless it was the 442 Olds, I don't remember rear bars coming from the factory until 68 or 69. And a 70-72 Monte Carlo bar should fit also. The 73-77 mounted in a different way, they bolted into the underneath of the rear control arm rather than the side. But you need the special brackets that weld into 'open' control arms to make the 73-77 work. Also, you need the boxed control arms for the earlier bar to work effectively.

Well I have to box my arms anyway, so If I had to do some special mods for the 73-77 bar to work no biggie. Ill see if I can find one and post the results of the mods.

Actually 64-72 will interchange. Unless it was the 442 Olds, I don't remember rear bars coming from the factory until 68 or 69. And a 70-72 Monte Carlo bar should fit also. The 73-77 mounted in a different way, they bolted into the underneath of the rear control arm rather than the side. But you need the special brackets that weld into 'open' control arms to make the 73-77 work. Also, you need the boxed control arms for the earlier bar to work effectively.

Actually the cutlass' did come with a rear sway bar. A samll one though .875" or 7/8 nothing special. However they were not availible on 64 models only 65-72.

The rear sway bar is still available from GM for 68 - 72 Chevelles.

The rear sway bar is still available from GM for 68 - 72 Chevelles.

Yep :thumbsup:

Joe

smittyocat,
I have a 1" aftermarket swaybar (I can't remember the manufacturer) that I have no use for. I recently installed a anti-roll bar. I would be willing to let you have it for for free (hey, it's Christmas and I'm in the spirit of giving). It came off of my 67 Chevelle.
All I would ask is that you cover the UPS shipping (I live in Louisiana). PM me your address if your interested. You don't have to worry about the shipping cost until you get the bar.

If you went to GM to order a new rear bar for a '65-70 Impala, they'd sell you a '69-72 A-body bar, so I think it's pretty safe to say that if a chevelle bar fits an impala, then an impala bar should fit a chevelle.

Match PM sent

The 73-77 A body rear bar fits the 77-89 B body cars and is a little wider than the 68-72 A body. You might be able to slide it far enough along the control arms to get it in, but you won't like where it sits then in relation to the differential.
Just get a new Chevelle one from GM.

WHICH ONE IS BETTER? stock G.M. or after market. which one is thicker? or doesn't that matter? rick

A NOS GM bar is probably going to be the best fit. A NEW GM bar will most likely be a "GM Licenced" part produced overseas anyway. I`ve seen some aftermarket no name bars selling for cheap but if the manufactured won`t even but their name on them it makes you wonder how good they are? A decent aftermarket bar will generally be on par with an OE unit. Really good aftermarket bars will be better than OE quality. If quality is a big concern look for makers that will reveal the manufacturing techniques and actual material used in the construction of the bars. For example the ones we carry are hot die formed,heat treated 4140 chrome moly. A 1" rear bar will help to reduce the factory understeer so it would be worth upgrading there unless you were doing a 100% numbers matching car. Mark SC&C

WHICH ONE IS BETTER? stock G.M. or after market. which one is thicker? or doesn't that matter? rick

A small increase in thickness makes a huge difference in the stiffness of the bar. A 1" bar is 30% stiffer than a similar 15/16" bar.