Sway Bar Observation

[jensenracing77]

Tonight I just noticed that there are several different sway bars on the 61-63 cars. Till now I thought they were all the same. It also looks like the parts book is wrong. It lists that all 62 f-85 are the same except for police cars. In 63 it shows one for f-85 and another one for f-85 convertible and Jetfire. I got to looking at all my cars and found both of my 62 Jetfire have the same sway bar as the 63 f-85 and is larger than the 62 Cutlass. I then checked my 63 Jetfire and it is the largest of all of them. Funny that the parts book only shows one for 62 other than police. Makes me wonder if I should put the 63 Jetfire bar on my car. I won’t just because i am a purist but I may do it for temporary just to see if I can tell a difference. The back may get looser with the larger front bar

[62 Cutlass Convert]

Wonder if the spring rates are diff for the diff bars? As far as being a purist, those were the days when you could order things like sway bars, HD cooling, stiffer springs etc etc on a car that didn’t “come” with them as stock. If it was available, the factory would equip the car as desired in many cases.

[jensenracing77]

OK, I measured some bars. I thought our 62 Jetfire had a different bar but turns out that the thickness is all the same for the 61-62 other than police. The part I find funny is that all three of my 62 Jetfire have an identification nub on one end and the Cutlass version does not have this. Not sure the reason for this. I am going to use the 15/16 bar on our 62 4 speed car and see if i can tell a difference. I am a purist but this is easy to switch back. I did have to get bushings for the 64-72 cars to get a hole large enough.

61-62 bars are 13/16
61-62 Police car bars are 7/8
63 f-85 and Cutlass are 7/8
63 Jetfire and Convertible are 15/16

[graytoad]

thanks for the list Eric, I will check my 63. I looked at it and thought ‘that is pretty paltry’ considering what I have had experience with pertaining to sway bar size and functionality.

[jensenracing77]

Anyone know where to get the sway bar bushings for our cars and a 15/16 bar? I am starting to think I will have to bore the 13/16 bushings larger.

[joe_padavano]

Eric, do they look like this? These are Centric bushings for a 1963 Tempest from RockAuto.

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[jensenracing77]

The ones I took off of my 63 Jetfire parts car look just like the bushings for the small bar only with a bigger hole. The 1963 parts book is not even clear on these bushings. I even compared it to the 70 Cutlass style but that bushing is much bigger and will not fit the bracket. I suppose it may be easier to cut the outside of those down easier than making the hole bigger in a 62 bushing… I would like to try the 63 larger bar on my 62 when I get it done.

[62 Cutlass Convert]

There should be something available off the shelf for you. I got a set of compliant urethane with the locating budge that fit my orig straps on my 13/16” bar. Rare Parts researched it for me.

Got those after getting a set of the only others I found that everyone sells that’s a smash into the strap style with no locating bulge.

[jensenracing77]

I have the bushings for the 13/16 bar that are the correct thing and even an NOS set but the hole is to small in them to run the 15/16 bar from the 63 Jetfire. I will likely just cut the hole larger in the repop set I have and save the NOS set for the original bar when and if I decide to put it back on the car. I would rather find the correct bushings though.

[Greg Oakley]

I found the correct repro bushings for the 15/16” bar. It is a 1963 corvette bushing and is exactly like the original, here is a photo and my originals that are distorted from years of use. These fit perfect and have the locating bulge. Tracy Corvette has these and they also have 3/4” which equals 12/16” so close to the 13/16” bar size and would probably work.

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