Acouple of questions, which large diameter GM front and rear sway bar will bolt on to my 65 Chevelle? Will the sway bars off of a 80's Malibu fit? Also,I prefer the feel of manual steering over power steering but I would like to swap to a quicker manual box, what's available? My car will be used for every nice day driving so I don't want get carried away.
Thanks all

Hi, the sway bars off of a G-body will not work. Your best bet from GM sway bars that will bolt on would be an 1 1/4" front sway bar grabbed from a second generation (1970-1981)Trans Am. For the rear I suggest getting a new GM 7/8 rear bar (GM part number 394926). This part is availibe from www.partszoneonline.com (http://www.partszoneonline.com) for only $69.32. They ship worldwide so Canada wouldn't be a problem. You can always call them to get an estimate on shipping.

1" rear bars are available, too.

I welded 3/8” thick steel blocks with taped holes to give a much stronger front sway bar mount. I am using a 1-3/8” front sway bar and a hard corner with this heavy vehicle, there is no doubt in my mind that the mount bolts would just rip right out of the factory tapped holes in the thin frame material. I found the bar at Malibu Performance 818-222-6725. also I used polyurethane sway-bar mounts which I drilled and tapped grease fittings in.

FO_FDYFO makes a good point. My 1-1/8" bar tore out of the frame. I had to oversize the holes and go with a larger bolt.

Also,I prefer the feel of manual steering over power steering but I would like to swap to a quicker manual box, what's available?Not sure whats available for manual steering, or if you currently have power or not...

I recently put in an AGR quick ratio (12.7:1) power box, and the feel is different from any other power box I have ever had... I cannot "one-finger" steer the car when parking, and it is very tight and responsive on the road, definitely sporty... I think there is a valve (T-bar or something?) in the box that controls how much driver effort/input is needed before any assist is added, so it feels more like the manual steering to me. And AGR also has even "stiffer" valves/T-bars for increased effort... Of course, mine still uses the older (rebuilt) pump and orifice, so maybe my pressure is low.

I think Flaming River might make some manual steering boxes, but not sure if they have one for the Chevelle, or how quick they are...

Thanks for your replies. I have manual steering at this time but would like to upgrade to a manual box with a quicker lock to lock. Need to know where I can find a GM box that will bolt in??

The on-center effort and feel is nearly all controlled by the torsion bar inside the steering gear valve. It is not controlled by the pressure that the pump can develop. When you are steering over center, (and particularly when you are driving down the road) your pump only needs to develop 100 or 200 psi to steer the car.

If you have insufficient pressure you will note a very large increase in effort as you approach full lock with the car stopped.

There are several fast ratio gears that were in production in various GM vehicles (including the 1992 1/2-98 Jeep Grand Cherokee) that can be bolted into your Chevelle with minimal work.

You can find out a quite a bit of information on fast ratio Saginaw steering gears at the following websight:

www.corvettefaq.com/A-Car.asp (http://www.corvettefaq.com/A-Car.asp)

You can download the following papers:

A-Car Fast Ratio Steering Gear Upgrade Instructions - 6 pages

Caprice, MC, & Buick Fast Ratio Gears List

Chevelle Power Steering Gears (64-74) List

Grand Cherokee Fast Ratio Gears 92 1/2 - 98) List

A number of these same papers are available in the Chevelle archives but they have not been updated for well over a year. If there have been any updates, the corvettefaq websight has the latest.

The on-center effort and feel is nearly all controlled by the torsion bar inside the steering gear valve. It is not
controlled by the pressure that the pump can develop. When you are steering over center, (and particularly when
you are driving down the road) your pump only needs to develop 100 or 200 psi to steer the car. Good to know Jim... My pump worked fine with the previous box (1978? Trans Am, which I thought, 9years ago, was a quick ratio box). I know the T-bar value on my "new" AGR box was supposed to be pretty high effort... I like it...

Didn't mean to hijack the post...