Sway Bar Surprise

[tlorber]

Last week I was driving my '73 and I began hearing a strong clunking noise in the rear when I went over bumps. I have a 7/8" swaybar attached at the factory mounts-or at least I did. The mounts tore off the body, allowing bar to smack against it...

Fortunately, this occurred on the EXACT DAY that I had a lift installed in my shop

so working under the car is now very easy.

The metal that I cut out was not rusted at all-in fact the undercoating took a bit of upbrading with the wire brush to get off

My plan is to replace the torn metal and then weld in an additional channel to wrap the rail and distribute the load over a greater area.

I'm posting this because those of you that use the same mounting may want to have a look underneath, to be sure that the same is not happening to your cars.

Edited September 5, 2013 by tlorber

[madkaw]

That's why guys that upgrade the front sway bars usually put a doubler on the frame rail to prevent that.

[240260280z]

Sway bar plates - $32.00 : Bad Dog Parts, Datsun Z car parts and accessories

[Walter Moore]

My stock sway bar pulled through the frame a couple of year ago. The problem is that there is an internal stiffener bracket that ties the sway bar mount on the bottom of the frame rail to the side of the rail. Like everything else on the car this internal bracket rusts out leaving the sway bar mounted only the the lower side of the frame rail, which isn't strong enough to take the load.

I added "special" frame reinforcements of my own design, which I wouldn't necessarily recommend to others. Then I put the MSA front and rear sway bar kit on the car... I really like the result.

But the Bad Dog parts would work, if you could weld.